No Fear

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident” (Psm. 27:1-3). Two words jump out at me in this passage of scripture, and the understanding about them both will make the difference between someone being lost and someone being saved. The first one of course, is ‘fear.’ The other is 'confident.’ In this context these two words are obviously contrary to one another, and cannot coexist. But let me quote yet another scripture that puts these two words together in a synonymous manner: “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence” (Prov. 14:26). The reason there is “strong confidence” in the fear of God is because there is no fear of anything else in the hearts of those who truly possess the fear of the Lord. David, who wrote our text passage, wrote another scripture that confirms what I’m saying here: “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: UNITE MY HEART to fear thy name” (Psm. 86:11). Our text passage shows that David did not fear man or circumstances, and that is because he feared only God, whom he also knew holds ALL POWER in his hands in all things at all times; as he confessed in yet another Psalm: “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God” (Psm. 62:11). God’s people today have been conditioned and taught AWAY FROM the fear of God by the soft doctrines and traditions of modern Christianity, but in reality it is absolute insanity to NOT fear God. The lack of the fear of God among believers today has increased the fear of man and the fear of everything else in the hearts of those who have been fooled by the modern Christian religion, and it is evident in the things that people tend to stay themselves on. And that lack of godly fear in the hearts of men produces a lack also of the kind of confidence alluded to by David in our text passage.

Everywhere I turn I see people who profess faith in Christ talking about how bad things are, and how much worse they are going to get. Whether it’s terrorism, the economy, rumors of war, secular government, or whatever; so many professing believers are so worried about so many things. What is it? It is fear-mongering, plain and simple, because folks are AFRAID! People are afraid of what might be, or what could be, or whatever the case is; because they do not possess the fear of God in a united heart the way David did. Just mention the fear of the Lord and people will start rambling on about 'love,’ and how we shouldn’t be afraid of God. Well, there’s a couple of problems with that mindset. One is that there are few who can differentiate the fear of God from the kind of fear that they have of everything else, because the fear of everything else is the only fear they are familiar with. The other problem with that thinking is that the people who want to crusade against the fear of God under the guise of 'love,’ don’t understand the love of God either. And why is that? Because the love of God is HOLY, and God’s people have been taught a false holiness by the sin-friendly doctrines of modern Christianity, like 'eternal security’ and 'sinners saved by grace,’ which are actually the same thing. Even those who do not confess in words to believing these erroneous traditions, have still been influenced by the spirit of it all, because that spirit is prevalent across today’s Christian landscape. The truth of the matter is that the sobering fear of God simply CANNOT be separated from the real love of God, and it NEVER IS separated in the hearts of those who are true. Hear the beloved apostle regarding the love of God: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (I Jn. 4:18). John was of course speaking of the fear of things other than God here, saying that the love of God is not dwelling fully in the heart of anyone who has worldly fear present in themselves. As I stated earlier, the love of God is holy, and that means if we love God then WE must be holy, meaning without sin, as the scriptures certainly affirm throughout: “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (I Pet. 1:15,16). For those who have been induced to believe that holiness for believers does not mean literally being without sin, twice in the quoted verse there it is said that we are to be holy LIKE God is holy; and I don’t think God has sin.

Those who understand and believe the truth of the scripture that says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord;” fear God and make themselves holy by means of God’s HOLY Spirit that they have received for that very purpose. Job was confirmed by God himself to be faithful, and he understood perfectly what the fear of God is all about: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28). The fear that this world knows is NOT holy, and in fact it is an insult to God to fear other things, as God testified in Isaiah: “And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart?” (Isa. 57:11). You think you can be saved while being afraid of man or anything else in this world? According to God who spoke the following words, you need to think again: “He that OVERCOMETH shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the FEARFUL, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:7,8). But take heart my friend, the way to rid our hearts daily from every fear of this life has been purchased for us by Jesus, who sent back his holy power from heaven to purify us from fearfulness and every other kind of sinful tendency. It is by means of his holy Spirit that we can be truly cleansed, and remain truly cleansed in our hearts from ALL unrighteousness. The fear of God is that we MUST walk in that reality if we are serious about being saved from the wrath to come, and raised from the dead when Jesus comes the second time from heaven, as the beloved apostle confirmed to us clearly: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And EVERY MAN that hath THIS HOPE in him purifieth himself, even as HE [Jesus Christ] is pure” (I Jn. 3:2,3). All I can say to that is, AMEN!