The
Right Beginning for a New Beginning
©January 2, 2005 Rev. Bruce Goettsche
Another year has begun and it is time to evaluate our lives and refocus for the future. At the start of a New Year it is common for people to make resolutions. Many of us have weight loss and other health goals. We may have financial goals, educational goals, or business goals. These are good things to do because they help us become intentional about our desire to grow (or reduce in some cases).
This morning we focus on Psalm
111:10. It is a familiar refrain in the
Old Testament. In these words the
Psalmist gives us the starting point for not only our goals, but also our
living. The Psalmist writes,
The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs
eternal praise.
We are told that the “fear of
the Lord” is where wisdom begins. In
other words, if you want to make good choices in the year ahead, if you desire
to find God’s will for your life in the coming year, and if you want to walk in
the way of the Lord in this New Year, the way to begin, is to fear the Lord.
When we think of “fearing the
Lord” we immediately react negatively.
We shouldn’t. Listen to what the
Bible tells us about the fear of the Lord.
Proverbs 10:27 tells us, “The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.” [fearing the Lord will help us live longer]
Proverbs 14:27 says, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.” [Fearing the Lord will help us avoid stupid choices]
Proverbs 19:23 says, “The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” [Fearing the Lord will lead us to contentment rather than the insatiable need for more.]
Sinclair Ferguson writes,
The concept of fearing God may seem confusing because we tend to think of fear only as a sinister, unhealthy emotion and therefore as one to be avoided. By contrast, the Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is clean, wholesome, or healthy (Ps. 19:9). It provides fiber for our spiritual diet and urges away every lesser phobia that paralyzes us: the fear of ill-health, unemployment, the aging process, poverty, loneliness, war, honest relationships, failure, and even fear itself. From such fears only the fear of the Lord can ultimately deliver us. [Discipleship Journal Issue 52]
As we learn to fear the Lord
because of His greatness we find that all our other fears are swallowed up in
that greatness. John Newton understood
this when in his hymn, Amazing Grace, he wrote, “tis grace that taught my heart
to fear; and grace my fears relieved.”
So, what does it mean to fear the Lord?
There is a common misconception that people feared God in the Old Testament and loved Him in the New Testament. In truth, when we truly love God, we will also fear Him. This fear is not a terror that God will strike us down. It is the awe that comes from recognizing His greatness.
Have you ever had the occasion to be in the presence of someone you considered to be great? Maybe it was a star athlete, a noted business executive, a popular speaker and author. If you have been in a situation like this, you might have found yourself saying, “I’m afraid to go up and talk to that person.” Why are you afraid? You are afraid because you feel humbled and unworthy in the presence of such a person of stature. . . even though they are just human.
This is the kind of fear we should have when we properly understand who God is. When we begin to grasp His greatness, His power, His mercy, grace and love, we will also recognize our own unworthiness by contrast. We will be more conscious of our own sinfulness and be humbled. This is why the Bible tells us to “be still and know that he is God.” (Ps. 46:10)
Modern society has lost much of this sense of the “fear of the Lord.” We have been guilty, as Martin Luther said, of making God too “man-like”. We have done this in a couple of different ways.
First, we have focused our worship on appealing to men rather than honoring God. We tend to spend our time looking for ways to make worship more enjoyable, fast paced, and appealing, instead of looking for ways to honor the Lord. We have become more concerned with filling the church than fearing the Lord! Listen to Solomon’s advice about worship in the book of Ecclesiastes,
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth,
so let your words be few. (Ecc. 5:1)
I don’t think it is a coincidence that our society began to spiral downward morally around the same time the church became more consumer-oriented.
Second, our praying has become overly casual. In C.S. Lewis’ THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, Lewis observes that few of us pray with a sense of God’s real greatness. Instead we imagine God to be sitting beside us, or residing in some corner of the room. Instead of really praying to Almighty God we focus on generating certain emotions within ourselves. We feel if we can muster a warm “sense”, then we have prayed. We haven’t. We have only soothed our conscience. True prayer is having an audience with the one who is greater than our minds can comprehend.
When we pray out of sense of the fear of the Lord our prayers take on a different form. Rather than telling God what we want, we start asking Him what He wants from us. Sure, we still make requests on behalf of those we love; but we do so with the awareness that God’s way is better than ours.
Solomon said,
To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech. [Pr. 8:13]
Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil [Pr. 16:6]
We do not live a holy life
because we have any illusion of earning God’s favor. If we have paid any attention to the message of the Bible, we
know that we can do nothing to save ourselves.
We seek to live a holy life because we believe God’s way is the best
way. We trust Him. We don’t trust ourselves.
Like little children who have to learn to trust their parents, so we must learn to trust the Lord. As a parent’s perspective is broader and superior to that of the child, so is God’s perspective on our life. When we fear the Lord we read His Word looking for direction. We want to know, “What does God want us to do?” When we have discovered His will, we seek to do it. That is true wisdom.
Do you see how different this is from our contemporary approach to making decisions? Our approach tends to be to ask the question, “What will be most enjoyable?” or “What do I most want to do?” Anyone who is honest and aware will be able to see quickly that this approach often leads us into difficult situations. We quickly fall into sin; we are mired in debt; fall into immoral relationships; show a lack of responsibility; encounter numerous health problems; and never truly repent. All these things happen because we are asking the wrong question. The right question is, “What will honor the Lord?”
In 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 Paul
writes,
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. 11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.
Paul testified that a true fear
of the Lord leads to an understanding of God’s right to judge the world. When we respect God we know that He is just
and holy. He is gracious and loving
toward those who believe, but He will not overlook those who spurn His
grace. When we fear the Lord we want to
make sure that no one has to face the wrath of God. The writer to the Hebrews tells us,
For we know him who said, “It is
mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. [Hebrews
10:30,31]
When we understand the true
nature of the Lord, we will understand that He is glorified in extending mercy
to some and in handing out judgment to others.
In one case He reveals His mercy, on the other hand He reveals His
Justice and Holiness.
A child needs to fear his or her
parent in a couple of different senses.
On the one hand the child needs to respect their parent. They need to understand that their frame of reference
is limited and their parents see with a perspective that gives them superior
wisdom. The child needs to also fear
the power of the parent. The parent has
the power to give or take away privileges. For a child to grow and mature they
must in one sense fear the judgment of the parent. Most children are motivated by a desire to please their parents
and make them proud. In the same way
there must be a little healthy terror of the Lord’s judgment. If we understand God’s ultimate power in
determining the destiny of every living creature, then we will certainly be
motivated to share the good news of the gospel with our friends because we
understand the consequences of turning from the Lord.
C.S. Lewis captures the essence
of this tension in the character of God in his wonderful book, The Lion, The
Witch and the Wardrobe. The lion, Aslan
represents God. One of the children,
Susan, visiting the land of Narnia (where Aslan is King) asks one of the
animals, Mrs. Beaver about this Aslan,
"Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a
man. Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a
lion."
"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said
Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their
knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "Don't you hear what
Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't
safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
"I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if
I do feel frightened when it comes to that point." (Lewis, The Lion
the Witch and the Wardrobe. Chap 8)
What we have been trying to do this morning is gain an understanding of what it means to “fear the Lord”. Fearing the Lord comes as we grasp the greatness of the Lord, results in a desire to honor the Lord with our behavior, and results in a desire to persuade men of the need to come to the one who is not safe, but is indeed good.
So, how do we begin to turn from
man-centered religion to God-centered faith?
First, we must study the
nature and character of God. The best way to do this is to study the Word
of God. We need to listen to what God
tells us about Himself. The Bible is
God’s revelation to man. In the Bible
He tells us who He is, What He is about, and what he requires. We must remember that God is not made in our
image. We are made in His image! We read the Bible to inform and instruct our
view of God.
You might also read a book about
the nature and character of God. Three of the best books are THE KNOWLEDGE OF
THE HOLY by A.W. Tozer and KNOWING GOD by J.I. Packer, THE HOLINESS OF GOD by
R.C. Sproul. You can also go to our
church website and read my sermon series on the Attributes of God.
Once we have begun to understand God’s greatness we should let that greatness impact the way we worship and the way we pray. We need to take time to prepare our heart in quietness and reverence. We must remember that worship is primarily about honoring God; it is not about appealing to men.
Second, we must submit to the
Word of God. Obviously this requires that we start by reading the Word of
God. Submitting to God’s Word is more
than having a daily quiet time (which is a good thing). We submit to God’s Word when we allow the
Word of God to teach us, instruct us, correct us, and give us direction for how
we live our lives.
We submit to God’s Word because
we believe that God’s Word is like the advice of a parent. We may not understand what or why the parent
is saying what they are saying, but we trust the parent’s judgment because they
have proved themselves trustworthy. As
human beings we resist submission on every front (much like the two year old
who always says “NO!”) Like good children we must learn to trust God enough to do
what He tells us to do.
We must read carefully. We must work to
make sure we understand the context of the passage. We should read systematically. In other words we should read through an entire book at a time
rather than merely jumping around from passage to passage. This will help us read in context so we can
understand the intent of the passage. We need to read widely so we can
see the various dimensions of the teachings of the Bible. We must read
regularly. Just as we eat
regularly, so we need to feed on God’s Word regularly.
As we read we must always be
ready to alter our understanding and our behavior based on the Word of
God. I encourage you to read your Bible
this year. Start with a gospel or read
the book of Romans (Paul’s systematic explanation of the Christian faith). It is not the quantity that is important, it
is the attentiveness to what you read that is important.
Finally, resolve to make a
concerted effort this year to share the gospel with others. Take seriously
the reality of God’s judgment. Respect God’s justice and His holiness. When we fail to share our faith we show that
we either do not believe the Bible or we don’t really love our friends and
neighbors.
I know many are intimidated
about sharing their faith. You can share
your faith in many ways,
Not every form of evangelism
works for everyone. What’s important is
not the form of witnessing you engage in, what matters is that you actively
work to present Christ to those God brings your way in whatever way and to
whatever extend you are able.
If we will sincerely fear the
Lord we will not only live this next year with more peace and confidence, we
will do with a wisdom that comes only from the Lord.
©January 2, 2005 Rev. Bruce Goettsche www.unionchurch.com