Introduction : Many people are living an opportunistic religious life without fearing God. In other words, they believe in Jesus by living a self-centered life. They believe God as their object of exploitability, instead of the object of awe. When they read the Bible, they only accept what they like and completely ignore what they don´t want to accept. The holy name of God becomes disgraced, pointed at with scorn by non believers, God´s blessing becomes far off, and they face tests and trials, because these kinds of people believe in Jesus by compromising with the world, the devil, and greed. The faith of Christianity starts from fearing God.
1. The fall of Adam began when he stopped fearing God 1) Greed of Adam - Think about self greed first (Jas 1:14-15) 2) Arrogance of Adam - Desired to be worshipped like God 3) Disbelief of Adam - Never die (Ge 3:3) 4) Disobedience of Adam - Ate fruit of good and evil - Everything happened by not fearing God - Same corruption as Lucifer (Isa 14:13-14)
2. If we do not fear God, we will fear the world (Ge 3:8-10) 1) Fear the naked conscience by sin (Tit 1:15) 2) Fear the devil and the world (Jn 10:10, 1Jn 4:18) 3) Fear disease and suffering (Dt 28:60-61, 58-59) 4) Fear the curse and poverty (Ge 3:17, Rev 3:17) 5) Fear death and hell (Mt 10:28)
3. Since Moses feared God, he did not fear Pharaoh nor the wilderness (Ex 3:6, Heb 11:27, Ps 3:5-6) 1) Did not fear the Red Sea or the desert (Ex 14:13-14, Dt 7:18-21) 2) 12 spies (Nu 13:31, 14:9) (1) 10 of them feared the world, because they did not fear God - desert, the fortified cities, giants (2) Joshua and Caleb did not fear the world, because they feared God (Ps 31:19-21)
4. True faith begins with fearing God 1) Have high respect for God´s Word and obey it (Isa 8:13, Ex14:31) 2) True love caused by respect and awe (Ge 22:12, Mal 3:16) 3) Devoted when we fear God (1Pe 1:16-17, 2Co 7:1, Ex 18:21-22, Ac 10:2) 4) Faith is caused by a feeling of awe (Ps 23:4, Heb 11:7, Ps 27:1-3) 5) True awe, praise, and worship starts with fearing God (Ps 22:23, Ps 2:11, 99:3)
Conclusion : Children must fear their parents to respect, love, obey, and rely on them. Also, students must fear their teachers to respect, obey, study hard, learn, and love them. Faith that doesn´t fear God, treating God only as a utility value and accepting God as an equal will be swamped with greed, arrogance, disbelief and eventually disobedience. |