Calvary Road Baptist Church
“GOD’S PRESENCE IS FEARFUL”
“Of all things that are to be known this is most evident, that God is to be feared, to be reverenced, served, and worshipped; this is so the beginning of knowledge that those know nothing who do not know this.”
So wrote English Puritan commentator Matthew Henry more than 300 years ago.
But in Romans 3.18, we find the Apostle Paul’s great indictment against sinful mankind. He argues as a prosecuting attorney on behalf of the offended party he represents, Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, the holy One of Israel. And what is the culmination of Paul’s charges against sinful man?
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
With some level of sophistication, an articulate and well-informed person would readily grant that God is not feared anywhere in the world in the year 2022, except for the odd person here and there. He is not feared in Africa, where genocide is the rule and not the exception, and where AIDS once and now Monkeypox infects many due to an astounding level of sexual promiscuity.[1] God is not feared throughout Asia, where His name is not known in idol worshipping India, atheistic China, Buddhist Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, or Laos. God is not feared in Europe, where there are more practicing Muslims than there are Church-going professing Christians. And indeed, in South America, where it is commonly accepted that married men will commit adultery with a mistress, and in North America, where same-sex marriage is legal, where pornography is spreading like a prairie fire, where 30 million unborn children have been burned to death with chemicals or sucked into sinks since 1973, and where the fear of God is unknown among the great masses of professing Christians, it can rightly be observed that there is no fear of God before their eyes.
But how, then, is one to reconcile this apparent present-day fact with Matthew Henry’s assertion that if a person doesn’t fear God, he doesn’t really know anything? It is clear that mankind, including modern-day Pentecostals, modern-day Charismatics, modern-day new evangelicals, and the vast majority of Baptists, do not fear God and hence, do not know anything of importance, value, or significance in eternity.
Before you protest in your mind and heart at what I say, consider my words. Where do you observe God-fearing people, people who fear God? In years past, I have traveled to a number of foreign countries. I have been back and forth across the country. I also know and regularly communicate with people on every continent except Antarctica. And I received no reports of people fearing God from those I correspond with.
As well, I read. I read books. I subscribe to the Epoch Times and several magazines. I am an active news gatherer on social media and the Internet. I also listen to two news radio stations. Yet I have never seen or heard reported anything resembling a manifestation of the fear of God by anyone.
Several years ago, an outbreak in Toronto, Canada, began the “laughing revival.” It took root, and its after-effects continued in various Pentecostal and Charismatic groups for years. But it was so unorthodox, even for the denominations of the congregations that initially embraced it, that the denomination of the original Toronto Laughing Revival congregation expelled them. Still, the phenomenon spread.
Was the “laughing revival” really a revival? And was God’s presence really manifested at those places where the “laughing revival” is said to have occurred, where folks laughed hysterically in the services and frequently barked like dogs? I can tell you this: There was no fear of God in those places, by the testimonies of those participating.[2]
After that came a fad where God supposedly changed people’s fillings into gold. Never mind that the gold-looking stuff turned out to be plastic. Never mind that there has never been a dentist to verify a single claim or attest that they didn’t put the gold crown on. Folks, even if the teeth did turn out to be gold, which they have not been, the important fact, the significant point, is that there was no fear of God exhibited.
Then came Hillsong from Australia, spreading worldwide, featuring astonishingly inappropriate music and an acceptance of conduct that is expressly condemned in God’s Word. But their approach is being emulated because they are very entertaining. The problem? The serious problem? Do you mean besides the complete absence of the Gospel message? There is no fear of God.
By reflecting on their testimonies, the absence of fear of God is indisputable. Whether a Mormon or a Baptist or a Catholic or a Pentecostal or an atheist observed these various meetings, they would all agree that those people do not exhibit a fear of God. Though such people agree on little else, they would all agree on that. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Yet we are commanded to fear God. Ecclesiastes 12.13 reads:
“Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
First Peter 2.17 reads:
“Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
Revelation 14.7 reads:
“Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”
Can it be denied that all people everywhere are commanded to fear God? I could have cited many more passages, but the one from the Old Testament, the one dealing with Church Age Christians, and the final one expressing the will of God during the coming Tribulation, provides clear proof of God’s will for us all. But that’s not all. We are also commanded to serve God with fear and given a motive for doing so. Hebrews 12.28-29:
“serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”
We see two things in that passage: First, reverence and godly fear are not the same thing, so the argument advanced by some that fear means only to reverence God is destroyed. Second, the idea that a Christian would or would not serve God, depending on whim or fancy, hurt feelings or imagined offense, is refuted. Christians have some awareness that God is a consuming fire, therefore, they do serve Him acceptably.
How do you serve God, Christian? Do you serve God? Oh, you have your own ministry and serve God in your own way? I see. But is such service truly acceptable service? Study First Corinthians chapter 3 sometime. If your service is not service and ministry in your Church, it is not acceptable service to God. One more truth to ponder. “Fear” is rightly understood to be a title of God. Oh, yes. This is a startling realization to many who are unfamiliar with God’s Word, yet it is true. Oh, how it exposes those who have an unscriptural view of God.
Listen to the words of the patriarch Jacob, speaking to his uncle Laban shortly before his return to the Promised Land with his family and flock. I read a portion of Jacob’s statement from Genesis 31.42:
“Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me....”
Later, when Jacob was establishing a covenant with his uncle Laban, Moses records the incident in Genesis 31.53 with these words:
“And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.”
But he was swearing by God.
Notice that Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, the friend of God, the son of Isaac, and the third consecutive descendant of Terah to whom God’s presence had been manifested, titled God as “the fear of Isaac.” Moses, when writing Genesis, also called God “the fear of Isaac.” My friend that is profound.
If your name was Bill, would your son think of God as the fear of Bill? If your name was Mary, would your daughter in her mind think of God as the fear of Mary? Is God, your God, your fear? And is He obviously so to your children? That’s a question you need to be answered, moms and dads.
John Bunyan, the author of the famous “Pilgrim’s Progress,” a book more widely read in the English-speaking world than anything except the Bible over the last 400 years, wrote that the fear of God is man’s highest duty, for there is no other duty which man can perform in a manner acceptable to God which is not seasoned with godly fear.
Why is it, then, that though Isaac feared God, Jacob feared God, Moses feared God, yet you do not fear God? And why is it that until modern times, with such men as Matthew Henry, and with such men as John Bunyan, and with such men as Jonathan Edwards, and with such men as George Whitefield, and with such men as Asahel Nettleton, the fear of God was a clearly understood duty, yet professing Christians these days do not see the fear of God as a necessary duty? Why is that?
I would suggest that you consider this: When Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Joshua, and Gideon, and David, and Elijah, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, and all those found in the Bible feared God, their fear bore some relationship to the presence of God in their midst. Somehow and in some way, God, Who is everywhere present (we would never deny that), made men keenly aware of His unusual presence remarkably and unforgettably.
As well, in days gone by, the Puritans were a people who were so keenly aware of God’s majesty and might, so conscious of His purity and holiness, so devout in their devotions, and so blessed in their experiences with revival that somehow and in some way, either in their prayer closets or amid revivals, God’s unusual presence was made so real to them that they came to fear Him greatly.
Why, then, do you not fear God? Why, then, do the “laughing revival” Pentecostals not fear God? Why do the Hillsong people and their fellow travelers not fear God? Why do the new evangelicals and Charismatics exhibit no fear of God in any of their doings, in any of their testifyings, or in sermons? And why, I am deeply troubled to ask, have I never one time heard a preacher that I can remember among the ranks of the Baptists, in my forty-seven years of ministry and meetings, ever preach a sermon about, or make allusion to in a memorable way, the fear of God?
It deeply troubles me to suggest that the absence of the fear of God, the lack of any reference to or manifestation of the fear of God, is the result of having no experience with the presence of God. I am not suggesting that you seek experiences. I am not a mystic and have never advocated for anyone seeking mystical experiences or manifestations of the presence of God.
But I am suggesting this: Though a remarkable and profound awareness of the presence of God is not something you should seek, it is something that God may grant you. And though you should never seek “feelings” or “experiences,” you should seek Him; you should pursue God. Perhaps, in the pursuit of God or the pursuit of Christ by you who are lost, God will graciously make you aware of His majestic presence. If that happens, you will fear Him. Why so? Because God’s presence is fearful.
Understand that you are duty bound to fear God, His presence manifested or not. But if His presence is manifest, you will experience what I am about to show you from God’s Word. Until then, it must be taken by faith. The fear of God must be sought through a study of Scriptures and your pleadings with God.
To help you, I show you this morning that God’s presence is seen to be fearful in three ways:
First, TO SEE GOD FOR WHO HE IS IS TO FEAR HIM
Revelation 1.17:
“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.”
This is the reaction of John the beloved when he set his eyes upon the glorified Son of God. And what can be the explanation for this reaction by the apostle whom Jesus loved, the apostle who lay his head on the Savior’s breast in the Upper Room? The explanation is straightforward. He saw God, specifically the Son of God, for Who He is.
The result? He fell at His feet as dead. Why this reaction from John the revelator and not from these modern-day charlatans who claim to have visions of Jesus Christ? We know Who appeared to John. We do not know who these modern-day charlatans saw. If they saw Jesus, why are they so proud they refuse to fall down before Him? Or could it be that these fellows who say they saw Jesus are only making up stories? They couldn’t be religious charlatans, could they?
“But pastor, Jesus said to John, ‘Fear not.’” Yes, but He was instructing John to replace his slavish fear, his natural and instinctive terror, with a filial fear, an instructed and love-based fear. And if Christ’s instruction is not understood to be as I have described it, why are we instructed in Hebrews 12.28 to serve God with godly fear? No, the Bible is clear when it is taken as a whole. To see God for Who He is is to fear Him, which is good. When he sees God for Who He really is, man finds God incomprehensible, overwhelming, awe-inspiring, terrible in majesty, and altogether unbearable.
Job 13.21-22:
21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
22 Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.
What does this mean that Job is saying? How are we to understand his words spoken to God? Is he being irreverent? Just a few verses earlier, Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” So, here speaks a spiritual man who is humbled before his God. And what he indicates is his inability to deal with the manifest presence of God. He anticipates what John has experienced and pleads with God to spare him the experience of His dreadful majesty. He is crying, in so many words, “Lord, please do not overwhelm me with your presence. I can’t take it. Just speak to me, and I will answer you, or let me speak to you, and you can answer me.” Job knew, as few other men have ever known that to see God for Who He is is to fear Him.
Some pious fraud will criticize me for understanding Job in this way. But I well remember the testimony of a Scottish woman from the Isle of Lewis revival around 1950 who said, “You want to meet with God? It’s a wonderful thing to meet with God. But it’s a terrible thing to meet with God.” And she spoke from deep experience. And did not Paul write, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord”? Indeed, to see God for Who He is is to fear Him.
As Well, TO SEE YOURSELF FOR WHAT YOU ARE MAKES YOU FEAR HIM
Isaiah 6.1, 5:
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah was a prophet of God. He was a man called to represent God to the people of the kingdom of Judah. He was also a man set aside by God to write a profoundly significant portion of the prophetical Hebrew Scriptures. But notice his reaction regarding himself when he finds himself in the presence of God. Because his eyes had seen the King, the LORD of hosts, this godly and consecrated servant of God estimated himself to be “undone” and “a man of unclean lips.” His reaction to that is, “Woe is me!”
Indeed, this can be seen as a reaction provoked by fear, a holy fear, an awesome fear arising from the presence of God. Catching a glimpse of God’s majesty and might, His greatness and His glory, purity, and power revealed to Isaiah a great deal about himself. No wonder Solomon wrote, in Proverbs 18.2:
“A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.”
It’s a fool who seeks to learn about himself by looking inward, where there is only a wicked and deceitful heart. What did Isaiah learn of himself when he saw God’s glory? And when he saw himself as he really was, how did he fear God.
Daniel 10.8, 11:
8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.
11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
Consider this for a moment. Daniel has just been paid a high compliment. He is “a man greatly beloved.” But his comeliness was turned in him to corruption. That’s how he perceived himself. That was his self-image when his self-image was a clear and accurate perception of reality. And he stood trembling.
If the presence of God is not a fearful and dreadful thing in His most gracious appearances, in His most merciful dealings with His choicest servants, imagine what must happen when God’s presence is made known to one who does not like God’s ways, to one who does not know Jesus. So, when God’s presence is perceived, it creates in a person a profound awareness of unworthiness, uncleanness, weakness, impotence, smallness, and personal defilement. No wonder someone is a fool who looks inwardly to understand himself in an attempt to discover what he is really like.
You don’t get an idea of what you are really like by looking inwardly because your capacity for self-deception is too great, and your estimation of yourself is too high. But you can't fool yourself when you catch a glimpse of God and His glory. How does your personal glory compare to the sunlight of His glory? How does your posturing and strutting compare to His awful majesty and regal splendor? No wonder Solomon connects the fear of God with the knowledge of the holy in Proverbs 9.10:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
When you have some knowledge of the holy and God’s holiness, you really do understand some things. And knowing yourself from a consideration of God’s august majesty, you will fear Him. The person who does not fear God, therefore, is the individual who knows nothing of himself and has no experience with the presence of God.
Finally, TO SEE GOD’S GOODNESS MAKES YOU FEAR HIM
We will quickly look at three passages to support this truth which so contradicts the imagination of the heathen, whether they be professing Christians or not, who think that God’s goodness casts out fear of Him. Does God’s goodness shown to someone remove from the fear of God? Let’s see.
Hosea 3.5:
“Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.”
This is a prophetic passage of Scripture describing life for Israel during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ after His second coming. And what will we find in the millennium? During that time of the fullness of God’s Holy Spirit, such as has never before been on earth, we will find that God’s people will fear Him and His goodness. So much for God’s goodness putting away a man’s fear of Him.
Jeremiah 5.22-24:
22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Is it not the goodness of God that provides the early and the latter rain to grow crops? Is it not the goodness of God that reserves to His people weeks of harvest for the gathering of grain? Yet, in verse 24, we see, “Let us now fear the LORD our God” for being good in this way. And only those with a revolting and rebellious heart do not fear God, verses 22-23.
If you were to go to Jeremiah 33.8-9, wherein is described the New Covenant, you would see that those whose sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are pardoned, “shall fear and tremble” for all God’s goodness toward them. So much for God’s goodness putting away a man’s fear of Him.
One final passage. Job 42.5-6:
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
How good, gracious, and merciful was God to manifest His presence to Job. How little Job had understood of the sufferings he experienced at the instigation of Satan. And now, when God has chosen to show to this man the goodness of His heart, what did he say? How did he behave himself in God’s presence?
He obviously feared God when he experienced this goodness of God. I say yet again, so much for God’s goodness putting away a man’s fear of Him.
God, Himself describes someone with a revolting and rebellious heart who does not fear and tremble in His presence. You are commanded to fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man.
Yet you still do not fear God. Can you imagine what the implications are of having no fear of God? Do you have any idea what it means for you to have no fear of God?
Fear of God is a foundational grace. It is that grace upon which knowledge, upon which understanding, and upon which wisdom is built.
What’s to be done with a person who does not fear God, who does not seek to fear God, who does not seek the God Who is to be feared after preaching the truth to him? I honestly do not know.
If, after the preaching, you do not fear God, you do not seek to fear God, you do not seek the God Who is to be feared, then you are beyond any help I can render to you, except for prayer.
What you need, my friend is for God to reach down and grab hold of you. You need the Holy Spirit’s conviction ministry to bear witness to the truth of these things I tell you. And you need to come to Christ.
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[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/promiscuity-personified-on-the-road-in-africa/article18154681/
[2] https://www.thebereancall.org/content/may-1995-q-and-a-2
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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church