The Fear of the Lord

One of the primary reasons the Church today ha fallen away from the faith is because it has not taught the fear of God. When God's judgment is not taught there is no fear of God. We are certainly to revere God, but we are to fear Him also. "My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments" (Ps. 119:120).

We are taught by carnal doctrines that we can practice sin and there is no reason to fear God. cannot learn the fear of God until we know the truth. When God spoke the commandments of the law from Mount Sinai, the people stood at a distance and trembled. Moses explained, "Fear not: for God is come to test you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not" (Ex. 20:20).

When false teachers lead congregations to walk in willful sin, they will not teach about the fear of God because they have not learned the fear of God. Messages about the love of God, unless they are balanced equally with the truth about His judgments upon sin and rebellion, are the "peace and safety" messages of the last days which are leading people to destruction and hell in masses.

God has given us many Scriptures about the fear of God: "And by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil" (Prov. 14:16). "The fear of the Lord tendeth to (eternal) life (Prov. 19:23). The fear of the Lord prolongeth days" (Prov. 10:27). "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10). "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7), and "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).

Instead of learning the fear of God, we have learned the fear of man.

Man likes to intimidate and be feared so that he can bring people under his fleshly subjection. When you fear man, you can never learn the fear of God. When you fear God, you will never be afraid of man. "The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe" (Prov. 29:25).

Paul wrote: "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night (a time of spiritual darkness). For when they (the fallen away church) shall Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh Upon them (by the hordes of the powers of darkness), as travail upon a woman with child; they shall not escape" 1 Thess. 5:1-3).

Then he adds: "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief; Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night (in spiritual darkness); and they that be drunken (by stumbling in spiritual darkness) are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:4-9).