WORLD WIDE MINISTRIES FEAR OF GOD: Holiness PEOPLE REACHING PEOPLE Don Krider, Director World Wide Ministries "...SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE…” EPH.4:11-16 FEAR OF GOD 1 DK FEAR OF GOD TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Pages 3-18 CHAPTER 2 Pages 19-34 CHAPTER 3 Pages 35-49 CHAPTER 4 Pages 50-64 CHAPTER 5 Pages 65-74 CHAPTER 6 Pages 75-89 CHAPTER 7 Pages 90-98 FEAR OF GOD 2 DK THE FEAR OF GOD CHAPTER 1 I had been seeking the Lord for a lot of years, trying to find out really what the problem is in the church, and then one day as I was praying, the Lord began to show me something. The real problem with the church is that they DO NOT FEAR GOD. The fear of the Lord is reverence. It is not just coming before the Lord and being quiet and being timid, but it is knowing that God is a terrible God, though He is a loving God. THE REVERENCE WE SHOULD HAVE FOR HIM IS A REVERENCE THAT WE WOULD RATHER PLEASE GOD AT ANY COST THAN TO PLEASE MEN. We are entering into a time when everyone of us can be used mightily by God, but we need to move in the fear of God; not in the way that we think that it ought to be, but in the way that fear really operates. Not the fear of men, not the spirit of fear, but the reverence of the living God. You will know when you have come into the fear of God. You will no longer be a respecter of persons (James 2:1). You will no longer have your opinion above that of God's. You will no longer counsel out of what you see, hear, or feel, or your wisdom, but you will counsel out of the word of God. You will live according to the word of God. Man's fear brings anxiety. It brings ulcers. It brings sickness. The fear of the Lord brings health, and joy, and peace. It brings long life. Whenever you fear men, whenever you are afraid of what men can do to you, whenever you are trying to please men, you are always in a state of being anxious. You try to please somebody, but you are afraid you will never please them. You do everything in the world to please them, but you never make it. I like what the Apostle Peter said when they commanded him in Acts 5:28, "You're not going to preach anymore in the name of Jesus." He said in verse 29, "It is better for us to obeyGod rather than men." You can be in prison if you are pleasing God, and be at peace. You can be in hard conditions if you are pleasing God, and you can be at peace. But if you fear what men can do to you, if you fear what men's approval or disapproval of you is, you are never going to be at peace. You try to please one guy and another guy gets up and says, "That doesn't please me," so you are torn. But God has already given us the ground rules on how to please Him, through the fear of the Lord. Notice in Proverbs 29:25 what God is saying. "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." The fear of man brings a snare, or it brings a way to catch you. When you fear what man can say about you or his opinion, you are not going to really please God, because you are afraid you FEAR OF GOD 3 DK are going to offend somebody. I have news for you; when you serve God, you ARE going to offend a lot of people, because of the word's sake. You can't help it. You cannot please man and please God, so you might as well make up your mind which side you want to be on, the fear of man or the fear of God. For me, I have decided that I want to be in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17). The fear of man brings a snare to me. It doesn't set me free. So if I'm going to fear man, I might as well know that I'm making a snare for myself. If I'm going to fear man, if I'm going to allow man's heart in me, I will fear also. Anything about you, if you are walking in the fear of man, or in fear, always brings distress to your heart; but when you walk in the fear of God, you don't fear anything. You see, fear has torment (I John 4:18). FEAR HATH TORMENT. If I walk in that kind of fear, I am full of anxiety, I am full of fear, I am full of doubt, I am full of distrust, I am full of envy. Let's look at Luke 21:25-26. Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Luke 21:26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Nobody wants to go to hell. Nobody really wants to be lost, so now there is a doctrine that has been out for years and they have done away with hell. There are many people today that don't want to believe in hell, so they have blinded their conscience to it. There are not just one or two people; there are denominations that minister that there is no hell. But you can't do away with hell, because God said there is one (Rev 1:18, Rev 20:12-15). You and I don't have to argue with these people to try to prove God's word. Either you believe it, or you disbelieve it. Either you accept it or reject it. If I am trying to please every man I meet, then I'll no longer preach the gospel. I will no longer bring the truth, but I will bring what men want to hear. But what will happen to me in the end? I'm going to hell (Gal. 1:7-10). If I do make it, I will be called the least in the Kingdom of God, according to the word of the Lord (Matt 5:17-19), so why should I care about pleasing you? Not one of us will stand and be able to justify the other in the day of the Lord (Rom 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). Don't try to please me. If I do something wrong, in love tell me. But if you fear me, you're going to have a problem telling me. If you are afraid you are going to hurt my little feelings if you see me do something wrong, you are never going to tell me the truth. You are going to be in anxiety, you are going to be in doubt and fear, because FEAR OF GOD 4 DK you will always go along trying to please somebody, and you will never enjoy the freedom that the fear of God brings. When a man fears the Lord, he can stand against a lion's den (Dan 6th chap). When a man fears the Lord, he can stand in the fiery furnace (Dan 3rd chap). When a man fears the Lord, he can stand at the Red Sea, knowing that God will deliver him (Exo 14th chap). When we begin to fear the Lord, we are going to quit laying a snare for ourselves and quit having heart failure. Amen! Do you believe the word of God is true? Rom 3:4 says, "Let God be true and every man a liar." Prov 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Here the Lord tells me that the fear of the Lord is the beginning. It's got to be the beginning of knowledge. We are not going to learn anything really about the Lord by fearing men, but when we fear God, and want to please God, we're going to become just like the apostle Paul (1 Cor 2:3-4). He said he came to them not in the enticing words of men's wisdom (speech), but he came in the power and demonstration of the Spirit of God. He said, "I stand before you in weakness and in trembling, and in fear." The great apostle Paul came to them in weakness, and in trembling, and in fear. Do you know why? Because he looked on their faces, and these was that temptation to please them. But he came in the fear of God. Amen! Trembling in the awesome presence of the Lord. I don't think we know who is with us wherever we are. We would never come into church just lightly. We would come with that awesome knowledge that God is there, not because He abides in the building, but because He is dwelling in us; and we would begin to walk a little more in the very fear of God.