I’ve talked about how our pride is covering our insecurities. The parts of us that we do not want exposed. What is the motivation for us to keep these things hidden? What are we afraid of? We’re afraid of the judgment that will come if people find out we’re not really the person we’re pretending to be. Do I fear my insecurities more than I fear Yahweh, the creator of all things? Am I more afraid of my insecurities being exposed and me ridiculed and rejected for them? This is what pride hides. Our vulnerabilities. It’s where Satan hits us the hardest. So what do I fear the most? I know the answer I should give. I know what the bible tells me.
28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
10″The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).
The verse from Matthew 10:28 is what people typically think of when they think about the fear of God. We fear God for the same reasons we fear man. We do not want to come into judgement. Bring up the topic of morality in a public forum and one of the first comments people are going to give is “Who are you to judge me? I may not be perfect but I am a good person.” There is a misconception about Christians. We are not here to judge sinners. Jesus will judge the living and the dead at the final judgement. Jesus tells us this in John’s Gospel. 27″and He (the Father) gave Him (Jesus) authority to execute judgement because He is the Son Of Man” (John 5:27). 30″‘I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge, and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me'” (John 5:30). We can also see clearly the will of the Father in John 5:24. “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgement, but has passed out of death into life.'” The role of a Christian is to speak the truth of God’s word with grace and humility to warn people of their judgement. The same way a fire alarm warns you of a fire. When you hear that alarm go off, the fear of burning alive in the house drives you to run to safety. As such, hearing the truth of sin in our lives should drive nonbelievers to repent of that sin to avoid God’s judgement. As a Christian I believe we’ve contributed to our own problems with evangelism. We often abridge the message of the Gospel to make it more appealing to people who are not saved. In my opinion, John 3:16 is one such verse. The term love in our culture has become very convoluted. So when people hear 16″For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). They think aw that’s nice, God loves me, so He has to be happy with that I am doing. This is not the case. The succeeding verses tell a more desperate situation. 17″For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deed my be manifested as having been wrought in God” (John 3:17-21).
A lot of people will say here, hold up, wait a minute. I’m not an evil person. I don’t go around harming people and causing trouble. I’ve never been arrested or hurt anyone. This is the pride that hides our insecurity caused by sin. We try to rationalize our behavior by comparing ourselves to other people. God has a completely different standard. The first thing people need to realize is when you commit a sin you commit it against God. “Against you, You only, have I sinned… (Psalms 51:4). Sin is a very grave offense to God. The bible tells us just how serious sin is in God’s eyes. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). When we commit sin against God we are given the death sentence, for God is perfectly good and perfectly just. Those who fall short of his standard (sin), are sentenced to death because sin cannot survive in the presence of God. Lev 22:9. God’s moral standard is the Ten Commandments. We must compare ourselves to God’s requirement of us to determine if we are good people or evil people. As you’ll soon see, Jesus was correct when He stated “…No one is good but One, that is, God” (Luke 18:19). Keep in mind that the Ten Commandments are not a top 10 list. It is not that if your sin isn’t specifically listed in the Ten Commandments, its not a serious sin. All sin is serious in God’s eye. The Ten Commandments are a list of the easiest things we should be able to do to maintain a right relationship with God. If we break any of the law (Ten Commandments) we break all of the law. 10 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). Here is a simple one. The eighth commandment. You shall not steal. Think back in your life. Have you ever stolen something? As a child? As an adult? Candy from a friend’s house? Office supplies from work? Eaten something out of the fridge that wasn’t yours? Any situation you can think of where you have taken something that did not belong to you breaks the eighth commandment, and what do we call someone who steals? A thief. We try to trivialize what we’ve done in the past, because we do not want to admit our guilt. Often times we look at people who commit armed robbery and say “I’m not like them! I didn’t rob a bank or steal a car!” It wasn’t a big deal, no one even noticed! Again pride in ourselves hiding the insecurity and fear of judgement from others about admitting what we are. Thieves. Another easy one. You shall not covet, the tenth commandment. Have you ever yearned for something that someone else had? Perhaps someone else’s job? Someone else’s boyfriend or girlfriend? Do you look at someone rich and famous and covet their money and social status? If you’ve stolen, and I’m am very confident everyone reading this has, then it is the coveting of something that lead to stealing it. Now, to give us an idea of how evil we really are, and how perfect God really is. Jesus made a statement during His sermon on the mount. 27″You have heard that is was said, “You shall not commit adultery’s”; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman (or man) with lust for her (or him) has already committed adultery with her (or him) in his (or her) heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). WOW, what a standard Jesus has laid out for all of mankind. Who can possibly keep the seventh commandment after a statement like that? The honest answer is NO ONE CAN. It is the same way with the sixth commandment. Jesus stated in the same sermon on the mount that if we even think in anger toward a brother or sister that we are guilty of murder, and thus break the sixth commandment. So if we can swallow our pride and be honest with ourselves, we’d admit that we have a pretty big problem on our hands. We can pretend we’re great moral individuals by comparing ourselves to other people. People that have done more grievous things in our eyes than we have. I think that’s why shows like Jerry Springer and Maury were so popular. They allowed people to sit and watch the disfunction of others so we could feel better about ourselves. We hide behind our selfish pride thinking it will hide us from the judgement of God.
Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome. It lays out this exact situation of people denying the sovereignty of God so they can feel better about their true fallen nature. 18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:18-23). This is why we follow people rather than Jesus. Famous people who have the things we covet. Why people do really stupid stuff to get what they want, to feel better about ourselves. I hear it all the time in church. I know there are people out there who have made mistakes….well duh. We’re not perfect. We’re going to screw up, and screw up royally through our lives. Salvation is not about not making mistakes. It is about our standing with God. Looking at the commandments, our default standing with God is guilty as sin. This is why Christians profess Jesus as Lord and Savior. What we can never do what Jesus did for us. He was the sacrifice. God sees the righteous of Christ when he looks at a Christian. No matter how we fall short of God’s standard.
Sin, to fall short of God’s expectations. The penalty is eternal separation from God. This is what hell is. To be completely cut off and isolated from His presence. The most fearsome and horrifying thing possible. Something that Jesus came to save us from. Separation from God. The thing that terrified Jesus to the point of sweating blood while praying for his sacrifice to pass in the garden of Gethsemane. In his perfect obedience, He submitted to the will of God, and went to the cross to die. Jesus suffered the judgement of sin for those who will believe in Him as the Messiah sent by God to die in the place of sinners. The fears and insecurities we have in this world that cause us to stumble, Jesus took on during the passion. He was placed on mock trial by the very people who followed him. He was ridiculed and mentally abused by his peers. He was handed over to the Romans who beat and physically tortured Him. He was flogged, whipped with barbed lashes that tore his flesh from his body. Afterward He was forced to carry his method of execution, the cross, through the crowded streets of Jerusalem to His place of death. There He was crucified and left to hang on display as he suffocated and his beaten and mangled body suffered. Through all of this excruciating pain and humiliation, Jesus called out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)? This is when God turned His back on Jesus as the sin of the world – past, present and future – was laid on Jesus. He died for those who will repent and believe that they needed the Messiah to come into the world to bring the gift of salivation. This is why when died, as he said “..It is finished!…”(John 19:30). What He had come into this world to do was complete, and because of this choice to be perfectly obedient to God, to the point of dying on the cross for those who could never be, He was resurrected on the third day so we would share in His glory with God the Father for eternity!! Hallelujah!
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” What a wonderfully awesome God. He chose to send His Son to die for us rather than leave us to perish in our sinful state. I can never imagine to understand the contrast between Jesus dwelling in the perfect splendor and awesomeness of God and then coming here to earth to live among us in all of our brokenness. Then to willing suffer…and be separated from that splendor for our sake. The Gospel is not just for the lost. It is critical for us Christians as well. It is a constant reminder that we are sinners, saved by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. A humbling and relieving reminder that our hope for the future is not in this world, but in Jesus Christ who is seated at the mighty right hand of God, and will return again to eliminate evil and usher in an eternity in his presence with those who believe.
Heavenly Father I pray that the good news of the death and resurrection of Your Son Jesus will break the harden hearts of this world. May the fear of the Lord lead to the repentance of people’s sin, and the faith in our Messiah Jesus as atonement for our sinful state. I pray that believers will be lifted up and encouraged by your promise to come back for us, and vanquish evil for all eternity! Amen!