The Fear of the Lord / Various Passages

A. Do you fear what others might think and do? 

“The fear of man is such a part of our human fabric that we should check for a pulse if someone denies it.” – When People are Big and God is Small by Ed Walsh.

Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

B. The fear of the Lord is a trembling love. 

1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

Jeremiah 32:38-40, “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make them with an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”

Jeremiah 33:8-9, “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it.”

C. The fear of the Lord grows in the forgiveness of the cross. 

Psalm 130:4, “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”

“Christianity can deal with cutting because we believe that it is only in the shedding of blood that true relief and forgiveness is found. But true forgiveness and relief comes—not through mutilating ourselves—but through the stripes on the back of Jesus.”

“Without God’s forgiveness we could never approach him and would never want to. Without the cross, God would be only a dreadful judge of whom we would be afraid. Divine forgiveness and our justification by faith alone turn our natural dread of God as sinners into the fearful, trembling adoration of beloved children.”

Isaiah 11:2-3, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”

D. The fear of the Lord swallows up all other fears

1 Samuel 15:30, “I have sinned; yet honour me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the Lord your God.”

2 Samuel 23:3-4, “When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.”

Galatians 1:10, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”