For a rather lengthy period of time, I have been toying with the thought of bringing some messages on one of the great and dominant themes of Holy Scripture, one concerning which there is almost total silence in our day, a theme which was a great theme of our forefathers in their thinking and in their preaching. And it's interesting when one would describe one of our forefathers who was marked by unusual godliness, they would use even this particular term to describe him. He would be described as a God-fearing man. And it's that theme of the fear of God that I wish to set before you from Scripture in these next few Lord's Day mornings. One mature and very scripturally astute man of God has said that the fear of God is the very soul of godliness. The emphasis in both the Old and the New Testaments requires no less significant a proposition. The fear of God is the soul of godliness. Take away the soul from the body and all you have left in a few days is a stinking carcass. Take away the fear of God from any expression of godliness, and all you have left is the stinking carcass of Phariseeism and barren religiosity. And so, in order to think our way through, at least in an introductory way to this theme, we shall this morning seek to grasp something of the predominance of this concept of the fear of God in biblical thought, then we shall move on next Lord's Day morning to consider the meaning of the fear of God, the essential elements of the fear of God, and then last of all, some of the practical effects of the fear of God. This morning, then, the focus of our study will be on the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought. Now, one does not need a great measure of learning to be able to do what I'm going to do this morning. In fact, armed with a relatively good concordance and about an hour's time, you could pretty well lay out the study that I'm going to lay out before you. For if you took your concordance and looked up the word fear, you would notice that in no fewer than 150 to 175 times there are distinct explicit references to the fear of God. If you add to these explicit references to the fear of God all of the instances in Scripture where you have the fear of God illustrated, though not explicitly stated, it is accurate to say that the references to the fear of God, both in explicit statements of the fear of God, and of clear examples of the fear of God, number into the hundreds. Now, isn't it amazing that a theme so dominant in the Old and the New Testaments, a theme which comes before us dozens and dozens of times, can be either, on the one hand, so completely overlooked, or on the other hand, so shallowly and so carelessly handled so that the average Christian when you ask him what is the fear of God he throws back at you a little cliche that he heard in Sunday school years ago the fear of God is reverential awe and he says now let's get on with the more important thing well I trust after this morning as we seek to grasp something of the predominance of this theme, that none of you will be content with a mere cursory knowledge or acquaintance with this theme, the fear of God. I hope you will not be content to just parrot a little phrase, reverential awe, and think that that's the sum and substance of the teaching of scripture on this theme. Now with such a large number of references, I can only hope this morning to be suggestive rather than exhaustive and so I have tried to be qualitatively selective in pulling out of the Old Testament 13 references and out of the New Testament about 8 or 9 references to the fear of God. I say I have sought to be qualitatively selective. That is, rather than just select passages at random, I have tried to select those which contribute some of the most pivotal aspects of the biblical thought concerning the fear of God. So then, fasten your seatbelt, if you will, because we're going to move this morning literally from Genesis to Revelation, though we're not going to stop in every book along the way. Genesis chapter 31 is perhaps one of the most significant passages in all of Scripture concerning this matter of the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought. In Genesis 31 and verse 42, we read, Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me, surely now hast thou sent me away empty. Notice a similar reference in verse 53 of the same chapter, the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, Judge Betwixtus, and Jacob swear by the fear of his father Isaac. God's name is a revelation of his character. God gave an increasing understanding of who he was by the accumulation of the names by which he identified himself and through which he revealed himself to his people. And here, one of the names attached to God as a revelation of his character is the fear of Isaac. In other words, when God is rightly apprehended, having true biblical fear of him, is so much a part of a right response to the revelation of his character that he calls himself the fear of Isaac. Therefore, if my apprehension of God and my comprehension of God does not lead me to fear him as Isaac did, I have not rightly understood who God is. He identifies himself as the fear of Isaac. Then turn over please to the book of Exodus where we have the record of Moses' problem in seeking to administer single-handedly the entire nation of Israel in terms of the many needs that would come up that needed some judgment of a mature mind. And you remember the suggestion made by Jethro, his father-in-law, that he share this oversight, that he was not up to it, doing it by himself. And so they're going to select men who will be used as Moses representatives to help make judgments with regard to the specific problems that would arise in the life of the nation of Israel. When the requirements are given, For those who will fill this role as judges in Israel, Exodus 18.21 says, this is the requirement. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men such as fear God, men of truth hating unjust gain, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Of all the requirements that could be thought of for men to administer justice in so mighty a nation as this nation had now become, set at the very pinnacle place of importance is that they must be men who fear God. whatever other qualities they may have or may not have, if they are not men whose primary characteristic is the fear of God, they are not qualified for this significant role of the administration of justice and the solving of problems within the nation of Israel. Then, turning over to Exodus, we have another very pivotal reference. For in Exodus chapter 20, God is stating the whole end for which He is giving this unusual revelation of His mind and will in the Ten Commandments, and doing it in the manner in which He did. You remember there was thunder and lightning upon the top of the mountain, and God Himself drew near to that mountain in the giving of this revelation. And here in Exodus 20, we have a statement as to why God is so revealing Himself to His people. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, that is, don't be afraid with that carnal dread and fear, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not. If you were to stand off in the distance and to see the lightning flashing off the top of Mount Sinai, If you were to see the descent of the cloud and hear the rumblings of the thunder and stand there full of natural dread, you were to turn to someone and say, what is all of this? Why is God bringing about all of this phenomena in the physical realm? The answer would be, He's doing this to rid you of carnal fear and to teach you holy fear. The whole end of His drawing near in this way is that His fear may be before you. We see then the great significance of this concept when in this verse the fear of God is set before us as the primary reason for this unusual manifestation of the presence of God upon Mount Sinai. The parallel passage to this is found in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. But make them known unto thy children, and thy children's children, the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, to what end? That they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. The whole end, God says, for which I drew near to you and gave this revelation is that you might learn my fear. Therefore, to be exposed to this revelation of God for this unfolding of his mind and not to learn his fear is to miss the whole purpose for which all of this was given. Pretty central issue then isn't it? When so much of the whole Old Testament revelation clusters around the giving of the law and the whole purpose of the giving of the law was to teach his fear. To miss then what the fear of God is, is to be utterly blinded to much of what God is saying in this great section of his holy word. Now then we turn to the book of Job. We turn here from God's dealings in terms of a nation, to teach them his fear, to a description of an Old Testament saint, one of whom God speaks, not like the Pharisee who boasts of his own attainments in supposed grace, but one of whom God speaks and boasts of the attainments in grace. And how does God describe the piety of this man Job. There was in the land of Uz, verse 1 of Job 1, a man whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright. There was the outward expression of his life, perfect and upright. What was the inward soul of that life? And one that feared God. The first few words are a description of his outward bearing. This is, it were, the body of a godly man. And then he tells us that the soul of that godliness was that he feared God. This thought is underscored again in verse eight. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man. His outward bearing one that feareth God." The soul of his external piety was this inwardness of the fear of his God. Verse 9, Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? He says, ah yes, you say that the fear of your name is the soul of his godliness, but he has some other motive other than your glory. And then the whole story unfolds as God is going to vindicate his claims on behalf of his servant Job. So we see then that the essence of Job's piety and God's estimation of all true piety is that it is suffused with this fear of God. Now turn over to the Psalms. And remember, all we're trying to do is, by a qualitative selectivity, show in the Old Testament the centrality of the fear of God. Now, in the Psalms, there are dozens of references to the fear of God, and again, we select only several. In the second Psalm, we have the command issued In verse 11, Psalm 2 and verse 11, in the light of God's exaltation of His Son, God says, backing up to verse 10, Now therefore be wise, O ye kings, I have made one my appointed king. Therefore, in the light of that, be wise, O ye kings, ye kings of the earth, be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. He says, in the light of what I've done with reference to my son and the pivotal place to which I've assigned him, the only right response is service that is carried out in the context of godly fear. Serve the Lord with fear. We're warranted then in saying that if our view of Christ and his exaltation by the decree of the Father is not such as to bring us to a place of service in the climate of godly fear, we have not rightly understood nor responded to the exaltation of the Son by the decree of the Father. Then in Psalm 5 and verse 7, But as for me, in the abundance of thy lovingkindness will I come into thy house. In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Not only is all acceptable service carried out in the climate of godly fear, but even as we approach God in the fullest consciousness of his mercy and his love, It is never a consciousness of mercy and love divorced from the climate of godly fear. Notice how David ties these two together. But as for me, in the abundance of thy lovingkindness will I come into thy house. He says, I will come fully conscious that God's love is like the ocean. A few weeks ago, as we stood there by the Cardigan Shire Bay in Aberystwyth, Wales, we thought of that illustration that was conveyed to us by a missionary who, when having talked with one of the natives who had gone out to the coast of Africa for the first time and had seen the great cities and all the rest, was asked upon his return, what impressed you most? Instead of talking about buildings and automobiles and locomotives, he said, the sea. And they said, the sea? Why the sea? Because he said, it's like the mighty love of God, ever stretching out before me, but ever coming towards me, like the mighty love of God. That's something of what David said. seeing the love and mercy of God like a sea, stretching out before Him as far as the eye could see, yet ever breaking toward Him as the waves break upon the shore, He says, in the abundance of thy lovingkindness will I come to thy house. In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Therefore, no worship No matter how deep maybe the consciousness of divine love is acceptable, unless it is worship in the climate of godly fear. Then turn over to Psalm 67, one of those great gospel psalms, which has as its vision the proclamation of the message of saving mercy to the ends of the earth, The psalmist pleading that God's mercy will be to him and to God's covenant people to the end. Verse two, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all the nations. And what will be the result of God's saving message going out to the nations? Here it is. Verse seven, God will bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. In other words, the whole end for which the gospel goes out through God's covenant people is to teach the nations the fear of God. That's a pretty central issue, isn't it? If God's blessing upon His people that they in turn may bring blessing to others is expressed in terms of purpose in these very words, God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. Then this is no peripheral issue when it stands so central in the thinking of the psalmist. You have a parallel passage in the 72nd Psalm where this same extension of the gospel is seen under the figure of the reign of the righteous king. And of course, that righteous king is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. A type of that reigned in righteousness, of course, was Solomon. the fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ, and what will be the result of the Lord Jesus administering that kingship in power by virtue of His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. Verse 5, They shall fear thee while the sun endureth, and so long as the moon throughout all generations. The result of Christ's kingship exercised over the hearts of men is to bring men into the fear of God. Now turn over to Psalm 103. And here in the 103rd Psalm, there are several references to the fear of God, and basically what they have in common is this. They teach us that an indispensable characteristic of the people of God is that they fear Him. So much so that when you want to describe one of the people of God, you can do so by using as a synonym, people of God, those who fear God. And notice how the psalmist does it in verse 11, 13, and 17. Verse 11, For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is his loving-kindness towards all men? No. This idea that God's redemptive love is just some kind of a general, gushy benevolence that is focused upon all men is not the teaching of Holy Scripture. Here the psalmist says his loving-kindness is upon them that fear him. His peculiar love is upon his people, and who are his people? Those who fear him. No fear of him, no loving kindness. Down again in verse 13, like as a father pity of his children, So the Lord pitieth, and then he doesn't say his children, but he uses as a synonym for his children, them that fear him. No fear of him, no right to claim, verse 11, that I'm under the canopy of redemptive love, verse 13, no right to claim that I'm one of his children. It's used as synonymous with his children. In the whole thinking of Hebrew parallelism, you have this often in the Psalms and in other poetic writing. This is used interchangeably with the concept of child. The Lord pities those that fear Him. Verse 17, But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. So then the psalmist conceives of the people of God as those who are in every instance marked by this characteristic of the fear of God. And then the verse that Mr. Gergel is quoted in his prayer, and he didn't know I was going to speak on this, Proverbs 1 and verse 7. As this book of Proverbs is going to come to us giving wise counsels with a manifold purpose, You read about it in verses 2 through 6, why the book of Proverbs was written. Then he goes on to say, as I am going to give you this knowledge and this wisdom, as I'm going to give you these things, it will accomplish the goal set out in verses 2 to 6. He says at the very beginning then of his discourse, the fear of the Lord is the beginning or is the chief part of knowledge, but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction. Learning, then, the fear of God is not only the ABC from which we move on to D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N, from cat and mouse to disestablishmentarianism, from little words to big words, as you kids will do once you learn the alphabet. Then you move from little words to big words, and you would say learning my ABCs was the beginning of learning how to spell. But it is the chief part, just as the use of the alphabet is something which is not left. but becomes the chief part of all your learning, so that when a man is studying the most complicated book on far-out physics, he's dealing with the same numbers he learned in kindergarten and first grade, and with the same letters he learned. Now, there may be arrangements of them that we look at them and scratch our heads and say, it looks like a cat ran through there with ink on its paws, all the equations and the rest, but he's working with the same numbers, 1 through 9 and 0, And even Mr. Emmerich hasn't got beyond using those numbers. Still uses them, see? And the person here with the biggest vocabulary who can pick up a book with words in it that long, the chief part of all their knowledge is numbers 1 to 10 and A through Z. So then the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge, not only the beginning. But that which permeates all the accumulation of heavenly knowledge is the fear of God. And lose that, and God says you're not learning true wisdom. Pretty important thing, isn't it? The fear of the Lord, the chief part of knowledge. Then we turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. And we listen to this man who surveyed all the possible avenues down which a man may go to find the meaning of life. To find satisfaction in life. Some of those paths that some of you are contemplating, and right now they seem pretty sweet paths, as they did in the beginning to this man until he went down to the end of every one of those paths and he saw that it was nothing but vanity and vexation until he comes to this conclusion in the last chapter, chapter 12 and verse 13. This is the end of the matter. All have been heard. Here's the true meaning of life. Here's where you find what life is all about. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. What is the summary of the totality of man's duty? How is the true meaning of life to be found? Fear God and keep his commandments. Well, then we move on into the prophets. And it was difficult to be selective here. But I thought perhaps one of the best things to do would be to take the prophecy in the book of Isaiah. And I was tempted to switch into the British Isaiah, having said it for three weeks. the book of Isaiah chapter 11. Here we have a beautiful prophecy of Messiah who should come out of the stock of Jesse verse one of Isaiah 11. And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. And now there's a description of that spirit. the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And His delight, Messiah's delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. And here is an explicit statement. that when the Spirit would come upon Messiah, as He came upon Him there in the waters of Jordan, He would come upon Him not only as the Spirit of might and of power by which He raised the dead, unstopped the deafened ears and loosened dumb tongues, But that spirit should be upon him as the spirit of the fear of the Lord, and the one aspect of that spirit's ministry which is enlarged upon in verse 3 is that very concept, his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. So then the dominant aspect of Messiah's own character is that he should walk and live and move and delight in the fear. of the Lord. Then in Jeremiah chapter 32, as Jeremiah speaks of that new covenant which Messiah should bring to pass by his own sufferings and death, that covenant sealed and ratified by the blood of Christ as expounded in Hebrews 8 and 10, in which passages there is a quotation from Jeremiah 31, also 32 and also from Ezekiel 36. Listen to what God says to the prophet concerning what will happen by virtue of the blessings of the new covenant being brought to men. Verse 38 of Jeremiah 32. And they shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from following them to do them good. And I will put my fear in their hearts that they may not depart from me. God says the whole end for which I will work in such power in this new covenant is to so put my fear within the hearts of my people that they will not turn away from me. Do you claim to be one who sits here this morning a benefactor of the blessings of the new covenant? Do you frequent the Lord's table where you take the outward symbols of the blood of that covenant? God says if you have inwardly partaken of the benefits of that covenant, the dominant characteristic or one of the dominant characteristics of your life will be that you are held by the fear of God. Whatever it means. And if you're a stranger to that fear, my friend, you're a stranger to the blessings of the new covenant. You are yet in your sins. You're under the wrath of Almighty God. For every time the benefits of the New Covenant are applied with power by the Spirit, it is in such a way that God says, I'll put my fear in their hearts. And so this is a central theme then of the great theme of the New Covenant. And then the last Old Testament reference, Malachi 4 and verse 2. Here we have the picture of that coming day when Messiah shall come forth in judgment upon all his enemies to consume them. And that same day that brings the consuming of the wicked will bring the full and final glorification of the people of God. And so we read in Malachi 4, 1 and 2, For behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace. And all the proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But this will not be the case of all men. When he comes, in that day when he will come as a refiner's fire, In that day when he shall come to consume his enemies, there will not only be enemies to consume, but there will be another class of people. But unto you, and this is how they are described, unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings. The only people who will escape the fiery wrath of Christ at his second coming are those who fear Jehovah's name. That's a pretty central issue, isn't it? You say, who will escape His wrath in that day? All have made decisions? No. All have made professions? No. All who fear His name? Yes. And only they So we see then, in the light of these 13 references, taken from the dozens and dozens of the Old Testament, that the fear of God, whatever it is, and we've not tried to describe it this morning, is a predominant theme in the Old Testament. It is a virtue that is not peripheral, but absolutely essential in the saving work of God. Now someone says, ah yes, but. That is part of the dark and shadowy religion of the Old Testament. Now with the full revelation of God's love and mercy in Jesus Christ, just as the types and shadows of the blood of bulls and goats and of heifers has been swallowed up in Christ, so That dark, foreboding concept of the fear of God being a dominant characteristic of worship has given way to the bright and flitting quality of the joy of the Lord. Is that true? Will the New Testament support such thinking? Well, I trust as we look at eight or nine references in the New Testament, we will see such thinking absolutely flayed and laid dead. And may God grant that the carcass shall not be revived in the mind of any one of his people. All right, turn to the New Testament. And what do we find? Well, at the very conception of our Lord or shortly thereafter, you remember that Mary goes to pay a visit to Elizabeth. And as she does, she is filled with the spirit and she breaks forth in what is commonly been called the Magnificat. And in this hymn of praise, Mary sees illustrated in God's dealings with her a principle or principles which have been characteristic of God's dealings with his people throughout the centuries and characteristic of his dealings with his people through the very one she now carries in her womb. When you read the Magnificat in that light, it becomes a wonderful hymn of praise. Mary sees that what God is doing to her is simply illustrative of what He has always done with His people and what He will continue to do through the coming of the Son of God whom she now carries in her womb. And in this great hymn of praise, she says, among other things, and I read now from Luke 1 and verse 50, we go back up to verse 49. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name, and his mercy is unto generations and generations of them that fear him. of them that fear him. She sees what God is doing to her as an illustration of this principle, a principle that will continue to be operative as Messiah comes and carries out his mission. What did our Lord teach? Certainly if his presence should cause men no longer to fear God, but simply to have joy in God and to love God, we would expect our Lord to discourage anything like fear, and especially anything that had the fear of dread in it. For as we'll see in our definition, there are two basic aspects of the fear of God, as in all human fear, a fear of dread and a fear of awe, one that drives us from the object of dread, one that draws us to the object of awe. But our Lord's teaching, in a passage like Matthew 10, is very clear, even in underscoring this concept of fear that has an element of dread. For he says in Matthew 10 and verse 28. Matthew 10 and verse 28. Speaking to his disciples in the parallel passage in Luke, he says, I say unto you, my friends, this passage begins with verse 24. A disciple is not above his teacher. He's talking to his disciples and he says, be not afraid of them that killed the body. and are not able to kill the soul, but rather, and this is in the imperative, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. rather than come with a mission that was to negate the fear, the fear that even has the aspect of the dread of what God can do if I fall into His hands with my sins laid to my charge. Jesus enforced it and said, don't be afraid of them that can kill the body, but fear that God who can cast you into hell. He did not come to negate the fear of God. He came to enforce it. And we shall see in our further studies As there was ground in the shadowy revelation of God in the old covenant to fear him, so the fuller revelation in the new covenant has only intensified the obligation of godly fear. Now we turn to the epistle, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Is there remaining sin in the life of a believer to be dealt with? Is he negatively to seek to mortify the deeds of the flesh and positively to cultivate every grace that will bring him into closer conformity to Jesus Christ? And every intelligent Christian says yes. How then is it to be done? Is it to be spurred on by the thought that the more holy I am, the more gifts I'll get when I get before the Lord? Is that to be the dominating thought? Is the dominating thought to be, well, the more I'm filled with the Spirit, the more joy and happiness and peace and vibrancy I'll have, and so I'll live life with a capital L, so I should carry out the pursuit of holiness in the climate of anticipating greater joy? Now, there's an element of truth in both those things, but I suggest that's not to be the dominant thought. Listen to the words of the Apostle. 2 Corinthians 7, 1. Having therefore these promises, beloved, Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. In other words, the highest reaches of attainment in practical holiness and godliness are to be attained and sought after in the climate of the fear of God. In the outworking of practical godliness, much has to do with our interpersonal relationships. The godliness that leaves you ugly with your boss, churlish with your wife, nasty with your husband, snippy with your mom and dad, is no godliness at all. The godliness and holiness of the New Testament And the old as well are intensely practical things. Things which show up most clearly in their presence or absence in the interpersonal relationships of your deepest human relationships. The family and then the place where you work, you go to school, your dorm mate and the rest. So our holiness, our going on in sanctification, must be seen in those relationships. And as we go on in seeking greater degrees of holiness in those relationships, what's to be the dominant characteristic? Well, look at Ephesians 5, verse 22, and then Colossians 3, 22. Ephesians 5, 22, introduces the climate or the context of the home. Husband-wife relationship, parent-child relationship. And notice what he says in introducing that subject. Verse 21, subjecting yourselves one to another In the fear of God, or in the fear of Christ, wives be subject to your husbands. Husbands love your wives. Chapter 6, children obey your parents. All of these injunctions concerning the nitty-gritty of practical godliness in the interpersonal relationships of the home are couched in the framework of the fear of Christ. Therefore, any attempts To go on in holiness in these relationships that ignores this idea of the fear of Christ is something less than that which is set before us in the Word of God. In the parallel passage in Colossians 3, you have the interpersonal relationships found in your place of work. Servants, masters, masters and servants. And in that context, the admonition comes, Colossians 3.22, servants obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. In other words, the fear of God is to be as present in that place of business as that lathe into which you put that piece of steel, as that foreman who passes by to check your work, as that person who stands next to you at the workbench, as that girl that sits next to you and bangs her typewriter and blows her smoke into your face, as near as her dirty smoke that you've got to absorb against your will should be the fear of God in that relationship. That's a pretty central thing, is it not? And so rather than finding a negation of this concept, we find it intensified. We find it enlarged. We find it set before us in even a wider scope. Turn to Philippians chapter two. We could say as a summary of what we're admonished to do in Second Corinthians seven going on, cleansing ourselves from defilement of the flesh and the spirit. Going on in practical godliness in the home and in the place of business, all of this comes under the general heading of working out, in greater measure, our salvation. And as the Apostle commands the believers at Philippi to work out their salvation, what's to be the context of that working out? Philippians 2.12. So then, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now I ask you, where in the world do we get this idea that the people who are most jumping about with jolly, jolly joy all the time, time, time, are the most spiritual? fear and trembling, fear and trembling, and anyone who's working out his salvation in any other context, he's working it out in the context unauthorized by the Word of God. Well then, you say, has this got to go on all the while we're here? Can't we come to a place where there's no longer the constraint of the fear of God? Well, let Peter answer that question in 1 Peter chapter 1. We've looked at the words of our Lord. We've looked at the words of the Apostle Paul. Peter speaks the same word. And he speaks it in a most interesting context. Verse 17 of chapter 1 of 1 Peter. And if ye call on him as father, who, without respect of persons, judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear." Oh, but you say, if you've got real assurance that you've been saved by the blood of Christ, doesn't that negate the fear of God? No, for he says in the next verse, That ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver and gold from your vain manner of life, handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood of the Lamb, he says, the knowledge that you've been redeemed at such an awful price will intensify the reality of the fear of God, not negate it. He uses the very argument to enforce the necessity of walking in godly fear, the fact that we know we've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Now, don't you put a meaning on that that I haven't put yet. Your temptation goes, the old bastard said you've got to walk around cringing like somebody before a bully. I didn't say that. I haven't defined what the fear is. I'm simply exegeting these passages in a very surface way which show the centrality of this concept. And Peter says you're to pass the whole time of your sojourning in fear so that at any point in my sojourn from the moment I breathe my first breath as a new creature in Christ to the moment when the Lord comes to take me at his glorious appearing or I pass through the valley of the shadow of death and breathe my last, the fear of God should characterize the entirety of my soldier. This is why, Luke, in describing the maturity and the blessing of God upon the early church, and this is the one reference I want to take from Acts. In chapter 9, notice the beautiful fusion of things that so often we would separate but that God brings together. Acts 9 in verse 31, following the conversion of Saul, who had been making havoc at the church, we read, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified, that is, being brought to fuller development in the fullness of Christ, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit was multiplied. Why, you say, if there's the comfort of the Spirit, wouldn't that negate the fear of God? And if there's the fear of God, wouldn't that negate the comfort? No, for the Spirit that rests upon Messiah and the Spirit which He received in plentitude and now Himself pours upon His Church is, according to Isaiah 11, what? the spirit of the fear of the Lord. And just as the fear of the Lord characterized our Lord himself, so now as he who received that spirit without measure has gone to the right hand of the Father and sheds forth of that spirit upon and into his church, the more that church is filled with the spirit of Jesus, the more that church will reflect the fear of the Lord. And so indispensable an element is this, that on into eternity, even after the last remains of sin are purged from the believer, we'll still fear God. And so our last two references are taken from Revelation chapter 15. Revelation chapter 15. And here, in symbolic language, we have set before us the redeemed of God. Verse 2, And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God the Almighty. Righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages. And in the light of the marvel of his works and the righteousness of his ways, what should be the response of even the redeemed there in his presence? Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? So then the fear of God will mark the worship of the redeemed even in his presence. and in a similar hymn of praise recorded in the 19th chapter of the book of the Revelation. And again in verse 5, backing up to verse 4, And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth upon the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah, And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye his servants. And how are they characterized? They're in that place of the completion of their redemption. Here's how they're characterized. Ye that fear him. That's taken as the dominant characteristic of the servants of God, even as they know the completion of God's redemptive purposes in that. So then what can we conclude in the light of these 13 pivotal texts in the Old Testament and these 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 texts in the New Testament? May I draw two conclusions very briefly? And here I thought I would only talk for about 35 minutes this morning and get all this behind me. But let me give them to you briefly. I believe we are warranted to conclude that to be devoid of the fear of God is to be devoid of biblical religion. To be devoid of the fear of God is to be devoid of biblical religion. No matter how much of the Bible we may know, no matter how many verses we may claim to be embracing, no matter how many promises we may claim to believe, in the light of these texts of Scripture, I believe the youngest child here would agree with me this morning. If you don't know what the fear of God is in your heart and life, you don't know the first thing about biblical religion experimentally. Now, that's a pretty serious conclusion, but no lesser conclusion can be drawn from the text of these scriptures. Since Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of biblical religion, And since the spirit given to him and sent from him is the spirit of the fear of God, to be without the fear of God is to be without the spirit of Christ, and to be without the spirit of Christ, Romans 8, 9, is to be none of his. May God grant that if you sit here this morning and say, I don't know what in the world that preacher's talking about. I never heard this before. You better do some serious reflection. You better make it possible. Do everything possible to make sure that you can be present for the further expositions. You go home and get your Bible and start crying out to God saying, God, teach me what it is to fear you. For I see if I'm devoid of your fear, I have no true saving religion. You're a stranger to the new covenant. Second conclusion we are warranted in making is this. The measure of growth in any individual or in any church. is the measure to which it increases in the fear of God. The measure of growth in any individual and in any church is the measure to which that individual or church is increasing in the fear of God. It speaks of Nehemiah in chapter 7 and verse 2 as a man who feared God above many. And so his spiritual stature above many was in great measure due to the fact that he feared God above many. And then thirdly, to be ignorant of the meaning of the fear of God is to be ignorant of a basic and essential doctrine of revealed religion. And I believe there are many of you here who are not strangers to the fear of God in your experience. but you are very woolly about the fear of God in your understanding. And since growth in grace is always joined to growth in knowledge, I exhort you who have the fear of God in your hearts to give yourself to earnest prayer and study together with us that you might have a clear understanding of the fear of God to the end that the understanding may lead to your growth and to your development. May God be pleased to lead us into His fear as we consider together this great and holy theme of the Word of God. All we've done this morning is try to set before you the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought in the Old and New Testaments, and draw three conclusions from that predominance. God willing, next week we'll seek to grapple with the meaning of the fear of God and those essential ingredients without which there will be no fear of God. Let us pray. Our father, be pleased for the sake of thy dear son to seal this word to our hearts and to lead us in our understanding of what it means to fear thee through Jesus Christ, our Lord.