WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? Psalm 34:7-11 (Based on sermon by John W. Yates II) January 17, Dr. Howard Batson First Baptist Church Amarillo, Texas

Transcription

1 WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? Psalm 34:7-11 (Based on sermon by John W. Yates II) January 17, 2016 Dr. Howard Batson First Baptist Church Amarillo, Texas Triskidekaphobia an abnormal fear of the number 13. Bathophobia a fear of depths. Algophobia a fear of pain. Mysophobia a fear of dirt. Agoraphobia can you guess that one? From the agora a fear of public places. Nyctophobia a fear of darkness. Cainotophobia a fear of anything new. Panophobia a fear of everything. You can go to the phobia list at and find sixteen printed pages of all the phobias, listed alphabetically from A to Z. Ecclesiophobia a fear of church. So what are you afraid of? If I were to ask you to isolate the central themes in all of scripture, I m sure that many of you could do a fine job. One of you might point out the theme of creation that the Bible begins with the creation and ends with a new heaven and a new earth. Someone else might point out that beginning with the sacrifice by Abel all the way to the sacrifice of Christ, the Bible is a message of grace. Thirdly, someone might say, Pastor, as I read scripture it seems to me that covenant is a central theme God s covenant with Abraham and the covenant that God had with Moses. The covenant God had with all of Israel. The covenant we have with God through Christ Jesus. Someone might say that having a covenant with God is a central theme of scripture. Of course, all of these would be excellent answers. And we could continue with the list. But I wonder if anyone here this morning, if asked by the pastor to state a prevailing theme in scripture, would declare, Why of course, we need to fear God. It s staggering, although it s almost totally missed by today s preachers and teachers of scripture, just how prevalent, just how dominant the theme is that the people of God need to fear God. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, we re told to fear the Lord. You want wisdom? the Bible asks. Then fear the Lord (Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10). The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Do you want to lengthen your life? the Bible asks. Then fear the Lord (Proverbs 10:27). Do you want God s protection (Proverbs 19:23)? Do you want God s blessing (Psalm 128:1)? Do you want God s provision (Psalm 35:8-9)? Then fear the Lord. Do you want to know the love of God (Psalm 147:11)? Do you want to bring great pleasure to God (Psalm 147:11)? Do you want to learn to fear no one and nothing else? asks the scripture. Well, if you do, then fear God (Isaiah 8:13). It s everywhere in scripture. Over and over again we are told that it is the right thing, it is appropriate that we fear a holy, a righteous God. God says it. Moses says it. David says it. The

2 prophets say it. The apostles say it (Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:11, Romans 3:18). And Jesus says it (Matthew 10:28). We must fear God. Moses trembled at a burning bush and is told to remove the sandals from his feet for he is standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. The God of Jacob. Then scripture says in Exodus 3:6 that Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. It was the year that king Uzziah died. Isaiah says he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim sit above him, each having six wings. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. It says the foundation of the threshold trembled. His powerful voice called out while the temple was filling with smoke. And what did Isaiah say? Woe is me. I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Hosts. Isaiah is afraid. In the presence of worshiping God, he is fearful, frightened. It happens to the disciples to Peter, James and John. They are brought to a high mountain by themselves with Jesus. And Jesus was transformed He was transfigured before them. His face was shining like the sun. His garments became as white as light. And there with Him was Moses, representing the law, and Elijah representing the prophets. They were talking to Jesus. There was a bright cloud that overshadowed them and a thundering voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. And it says in Matthew 17:6 that when the disciples heard the voice of God, they fell on their faces and were much afraid. It happened to John the Apostle in his vision on the Isle of Patmos. He hears someone speaking to him, someone calling him to write in a book what he sees. He sees the Son of Man. His head and His hair were white as white wool like snow. And His eyes were like the flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze. His voice was like the sound of a mighty waterfall. He had a sharp two-edged sword in His mouth. He held seven stars in His right hand. And His face was like the sun, shining itself. John fell at His feet, as a dead man. And it says the Son of Man laid His right hand upon him saying, Do not be afraid, for I am the first, and I am the last. John was afraid. Listen to the call from the Book of Deuteronomy: Assemble the people men and women and children, and the aliens living in your towns so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord. Their children must hear the law and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land (Deuteronomy 31:12-13). It s a call from God to fear Him. Today I fear that we have so focused on God s love, we ve so focused on having an intimate, even chummy, relationship with the Almighty that we have lost the prevailing message of scripture that we ought to, that we must fear God. We have, as a people, lost the fear of that which is holy. We ve lost the fear of that which is mighty. We ve lost the fear of God. Psalm 34 is but one of many representative texts that call upon us to fear God.

3 Look at verse 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him, there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. From Genesis to Revelation, the call is for the people of God to fear their God. C. S. Lewis captures what it means to fear God. In The Silver Chair, there is Jill, a little girl who is the central character. She develops a relationship with Aslan, the lion of Narnia, who is the Lord. And it s the most tender, close relationship of love you can imagine. And yet, Jill had to learn to fear the lion. She first encounters him at a stream where he s standing. He s huge, menacing, and awesome. Are you thirsty? asked the lion. I m dying of thirst, said Jill. Then drink, said the lion. May I? Could I? Would you mind going away while I do? asked Jill. The lion answered this with only a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at hi motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move away for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. Will you? Will you promise not not not to do anything to me, Jill asked, if I come? I make no promises, said the lion. Jill was so thirsty that by now without noticing it she had come a step nearer. Do do do you eat do you eat little girls? I have swallowed up girls, boys, women, men, kings, emperors, cities, and realms, said the lion. And it didn t say this as if it were boasting nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. He just said it. I dare not come and drink said Jill. Then you will die of thirst, said the lion. Oh dear, said Jill coming another step nearer. I suppose I must go and look for another stream then. There is no other stream, said the lion. Do you and do I have a reverence for God like that? Do we understand His power and His majesty? The fear of God means at least three distinct things.

4 I. It means that we ought to be in awe of God - to be intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and physically overwhelmed by His holiness. By His power. By His purity. By His righteousness. By His justice. By His greatness. By His glory. I spoke with a friend this week who said, If you don t fear God, then you don t know God. Turn to Revelation 4:1. And after these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him to lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed and were created. Throne scenes come often in Revelation in fact, forty times plus we are spoken to about the throne of God, this power of God. If the Revelation of John says nothing else to us, it says that God is on the throne and God is in control. It is the image of a God who is absolutely powerful, a God who is absolutely holy and absolutely sovereign. He is sitting on a throne. It s an image not of a man, lest we try to manipulate and control Him. Rather, it is an image of light. It s like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. There is a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. We begin to get colors. And around this throne of God, there are twenty-four smaller thrones where twenty-four elders are sitting, clothed in white garments with gold crowns upon their heads. Notice, there is not a single human form for God here. We cannot manipulate. We cannot control God. It s the image of power an image that is bright and beautiful, a clear light, a red light, a green light. The psalmist said in Psalm 104:2 that God is covered in light as with a

5 garment. The garment of God is light. Paul described the Lord as dwelling in unapproachable light. It matches the vision of Ezekiel in chapter 1. These twenty-four elders, these angelic beings, have a mediating function. They had the duty of worshiping and adoring God and falling before the throne. They fall before Him in chapter 5 and chapter 11 and chapter 19. Their duty is one of constant adoration and constant praise to God. Then we have lightning and thunder declaring the power and majesty of God. And even closer to God are these four creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. They are all alert, they are all-knowing with all these eyes. One is like a lion. One is like a calf. The third had the face of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. We have the strongest of all the ox or the calf. We have the wisest of all humanity. We have the swiftest of all the eagle. We have the noblest of all the lion. So imagine now this throne with all the brilliant light and the lightning and the thunder and the four creatures and the twenty-four elders. It is an amazing depiction of the power of God. And the sound that you hear and it never ceases is Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. God is completely other than we are. He is holy, which means He is separate from humanity. While we would try to put a human face on the throne, we are not allowed to do that in this vision. Rather, it is a vision of powerful light and the thunders and the lightnings of heaven and the creatures the wisest and the noblest and the swiftest and the strongest. All of creation is represented somehow in these creatures, one from each member of creation. And they come together and they say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. In Revelation 4:9-11, the twenty-four elders are declaring that He is worthy. He is worthy because He is the creator. And because of His will, we all exist. The elders seems to praise Him because of what He has done. The creatures seem to praise Him for who He is. It s a powerful scene. And for any of us who would cease to fear God, for any of us in our Christian walk who would consider God simply our pal, we have taken for granted the power of God. The brightness and the light. The peals of thunder. The images of crystals and the jewels. The sea of crystal and the creatures. Everything that is wise and noble and strong and swift singing praises to Him because He has created, because He is holy. It makes us know that the God we worship is completely other than we are. He is completely separated from where we are. He is a mystery to us. He is absolute in His power as He sits on His throne. To fear God, first of all, is to be in awe of God. II. To fear God is to be in reverence of God. The people of Israel in biblical days had a wonderful way of showing their reverence for God. The covenant name for God was Jehovah. It may be translated in some versions as Yahweh. It is such a sacred name that the Jews would never write the vowels between the consonants of Y-

6 H-W-H. That s, of course, explaining it in English. So we don t even know how to pronounce God s covenant name because the Jewish scholars were afraid that if they put in the vowels someone might actually say the name of God. And God was so to be reverenced that you did not mention His name. They would say my Lord, Adonai, because they didn t want to say God s name. We need to be in reverence of God. Bill Moyers, the television journalist, tells the story of a man s personal response to witnessing the launch of one of the Apollo shuttles: I was an observer at the launch of Apollo 17 in It was a night launch. There were hundreds of cynical reporters all over the town drinking beer, wisecracking, waiting for this 35- story-high rocket. The countdown came, and then the launch. The first thing you see is this extraordinary orange light which is just about the limit of what you can bear to look at. Everything is illuminated with this light. Then comes this thing slowly rising up in total silence, because it takes a few seconds for the sound to come across. And then you hear this sound. It enters right into you. You can practically hear jaws dropping. The sense of wonder fills everyone in the whole place as this thing goes up and up. The first stage ignites this beautiful blue flame. It becomes like a star. But you realize there are humans in it, and then there s total silence. People just get up quietly helping each other. They re kind. They open doors. They look at one another speaking quietly and interestedly. These were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder, the experience of wonder had made them moral. The fear of God, the reverence of God, has the same effect on us. It is an awe, it is a reverence that causes us to tremble before Him and to wonder at Him and to want to be obedient and pleasing to this Almighty God. III. To fear God is to fear disappointing Him the fear of dishonoring or disappointing our Father in heaven. John W. Yates, pastor of the Falls Episcopal Church, tells a story about the headmaster at his school. He was six feet six inches tall. He was totally bald, had broad shoulders, a big deep voice. Stern. Stood erect. He wore glasses that were thick in the lens and had thick black rims. I had never in my life met such an awe-inspiring human being. I still haven t, he says. In fact, he telephone me out of the blue a few years ago, writes the pastor, and when I realized to whom I was speaking, my kids tell me I stood bolt upright from the sofa and called him sir. It s like that with God. We can enter into an intimate relationship with God, but we can never be casually familiar with God not a holy God like our God. He said Mr. Duncan, the headmaster, never spoke to him harshly. He always treated him kindly, and he took an unusually deep, almost fatherly interest in the pastor when he was still a poor

7 teenage boy. Yet, he said, I could never completely relax around him. More than anything else I wanted to please that man. I wanted to come up to his expectations of me. I wanted to be what he saw in me. I had a fear of letting of him down. That s the way it is with God. Martin Luther, the unique genius of the German Reformation, was hauled before the emperor Charles V at the court of Worms in He was accused of disobeying the Pope, dishonoring the church, and misrepresenting God s truth. Luther, as he stood before this august gathering, was visibly shaken. He was overwhelmed. He was asked to recant. He hesitated. Finally he asked for more time to think it over. His enemies assumed he was overawed by the emperor. Luther is a peasant. He is a simple monk, son of a miner. They figured he was cowed by the presence of the prince, the Lord of Austria, Burgandy, and the Low Countries, the most important man on the continent. But they were wrong. They were asking him to recant what he believed, what he taught, what he discovered about the truth of God. Roland Bainton explains in Luther s biography. The truth is that it was not his standing in the presence of the emperor that shook him up, but that he and the emperor alike were going to be called upon to answer before Almighty God. That s why he was trembling. Luther feared God more than he feared the emperor. The next day Luther said, My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. A person who understands the fear of God doesn t want to let God down. Psalm 147 says the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. Fear and love with God go hand-in-hand. You see congregation, if you fear God it will drive out the fear you have of other people. When you fear God, you fear nothing. You fear no one. And yet, if you do not fear God you should fear everything else. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Teenagers wear T-shirts that say No Fear. Ha! Who are they fooling? The fact that someone decries no fear means they are terribly fearful inside. I certainly have my fears. But I hope my greatest fear is the fear of the Lord. The greatest way I know to learn to fear God is to worship Him. As your undershepherd, as one who is responsible to Almighty God for being honest with you about the well-being of your soul, I want to say to you gently to parents, to all of you that nothing is more important than that you come and have a weekly rhythm of worship and Bible study with God s people. You need to come here every week more than we need you to come. You need to come and you need to kneel before God. You need to kneel before God in silence. You need to hear the reading of the Word. You need to sing the songs. You need to affirm the faith of the saints and martyrs over the generations. And you need to sit under God s holy Word. You need to worship. You need to come to this beautiful house of worship, erected to say that there is a powerful, majestic God who has created, who sustains, and who is coming again for His people. You need to do so as

8 part of your weekly rhythm of life not hit and miss to say that woven into who I am is a fear of God, woven into who I am is stopping every week and coming to God s house on God s day with God s people and saying wow to who God is. In scripture, fearing God goes hand-in-hand with keeping His commandments. In Ecclesiastes, the wise philosopher ponders all that life has to offer purpose, meaning, and priorities. He concludes with this statement: The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person (12:13).