Proverbs 9:10 - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
God exhorts each of us through his Holy Word that if we want to be wise we must first fear the Lord, the Holy and Righteous King of the universe. To fear God is to reverently respect who he is, the True and Living God!
How many times have we disrespected God, made a mockery of his Grace, and dishonored his Holy Name? How many times have we as professing Christians used his Holy name in vain, or made a fool of him by our words and actions? How many times have we trampled his amazing grace after he so graciously gave to us when we clearly deserved his wrath.
If we were to stop and truly consider just how Holy and Righteous God, our lifestyles would change, wouldn’t they. We need to realize that we are but measly human beings that deserve to burn in Hell forever, but God in his love and mercy came down and shouldered our punishment, the wrath we deserved so that we would not have to suffer the consequences of our own sin.
We go on living day in, and day out as though God is some kind of distant cosmic cousin, way out in outer space, watching us from far off. We seem to lack a true understanding of what HOLY means. God’s holiness is his absolute moral perfection that will not tolerate ANY sin in his presence, at all!
His Righteousness stands hand in hand with his Holiness, and his Justice is perfectly just in every way. Our puny minds can not really comprehend the awesomeness of God. How great and mighty he is, and how much he deserves our respect, and our worship.
Do we even understand the concept of sin? Sin is anything that violates the law of God, which is contained in what we know as the Ten Commandments. Ten laws once etched in stone, now written on the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit of God. Ten Laws by which God will judge all of humanity by at the last judgment of the Living and the Dead!
The Law that Moses carried down from that mountain on stone tablets was the absolute written moral standards of a Holy God! The knowledge of this Holy God is written on the subconscious mind of every person, so that no one has an excuse on judgment day. Yes, even wicked, evil men who vehemently deny the existence of God have the knowledge of God imprinted on their subconscious’s. The believer has the Law of God written on their hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit.
God and His Law are inseparable! God is the Judge of all mankind, and bound to his law. The just judge of all eternity will render his judgment with all fairness and equity, no one will escape his judgment no matter who they are. God’s law is perfect, an picture of absolute morality, righteousness, and holiness. How then should we men who fear God live? In reverence, purity, and holiness before God, that’s how!
Men who gleefully wallow in their sin and corruption cannot stand to look at the Law of God because it causes them to be convicted of their sin. This is why we have seen the Ten Commandments removed from our schools, and other public places. The ungodly do not like to be reminded of their sinfulness, they tend to become irate when confronted with the Law of God, for it pricks their conscious minds, like a big needle stick, it causes them pain because they know inside they are guilty before God.
The world watched as men removed a large stone monument from a courthouse in Alabama because people could not stand too see the monument as they came and went from the building. Simply seeing a representation of the Law of God makes them squirm, they are uncomfortable all of a sudden, and are conscious of their sinfulness. So the only remedy they can find is to remove it from view, but they are still under the Law of God, and still just as guilty before God.
If a states that he does not believe in the law of gravity, and too demonstrate his utter stupidity, the man jumps off of a ten story building. Does his stating that he does not believe in the law of gravity change the outcome of his jump? Not at all! He still goes splat of the sidewalk below regardless of what he claims to believe. As it is with God and his Law. A man may state that he does not believe in God, or the Law of God, but that will not change the outcome one bit. He/she will still stand before God someday and be judged according to the very Law of God they claimed not to believe in.
Why did God give us his law? What does the Law do? The Law of God has two basic jobs it does. Number one it shows men that they have sinned before God, and secondly it closes the mouths of those who are trying to justify their sin.
Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”
The Law of God brings the consciousness of sin!
The Law of God is a teacher that brings us too Christ, leading us to repentance, and faith that justifies us before God. It’s through faith that we are saved by the Grace of God. It is the law that leads to conversion of the soul, and changed heart and life.
Galatians 3:24 - “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”
Psalm 19:7 - “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:….”
There is NO Fear of God until a person is exposed to the Law of God. Once exposed to the Law of God, the Law brings with it the knowledge of sin, and with it the fear of the Lord that cause the conversion of the soul, or a person to repent and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Using the Law of God correctly we pass over a persons intellect, and go straight for their conscious where the Spirit of God works to bring about repentance in their lives.
The law brings with it the knowledge of God’s wrath upon the ungodly. The law results in the punishment of all who violate it, without exception, except for those justified by faith in Christ.
Romans 4:15 - “for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.”
If there were no law of any kind to adhere too, a person could not be held accountable for breaking it, but the law does exist, and mankind has broken it. Breaking the Law of God results in punishment just as breaking the Laws of men results in punishment. Some may argue that because they do not believe in God, or the Bible that they then are not accountable. Oh Contraire! Yes they are accountable because they are under the Law of God whether they like it or not, God still exists, and so does his Law.
Remember what the Scripture say’s!
Roman’s 1:20 - “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
Professing Atheists claim that God does not exist, but their subconscious minds bear witness otherwise. Men have the free will given them by God to reject the Lord Jesus Christ if they please, but with that rejection comes the wrath of God for their sin because God’s law still stands in judgment over them.
Our society has lost the essence of the fear (respect) for God and his Word that used to exist in our culture. Therefore we as a society are doomed to suffer the consequences of allowing evil to reign in the place of righteousness.
A great American wrote many years ago that a Word of God should permeate every city and town, or else sinful and evil literature would surely take it’s place. America’s founding fathers knew the value of the Bible, the Law of God, and the effect it has on a nation. The Word of God, and the fear of God are sustaining forces that America needs desperately in order to preserve her as a nation.
Without God, His Law, and the Bible - America is doomed to self destruction!
Why should we then expect God to save America when we have allowed him to be trampled, and removed from the important places within our society? Why should God not just sit back and laugh at us as this nation, and it’s people crumble into oblivion?
Proverbs 1:26-29 “I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, When your dread comes like a storm, And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, Because they hated Knowledge, And did not choose the fear of the LORD.
Consider the scene at the Calvary, there are two thieves crucified on either side of Jesus, who deserve the punishment are getting. One mocks the Savior, the other cries out for forgiveness for his sins, and Jesus responds to him with love even though his body is full of terrible suffering. You noticed the one thief yells at the other one “Do you not even fear God?” One man believed and was spared eternal torment, the other died and went into eternal darkness apart from God.
Luke 23:40-41 - “But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
Let us fear the true the living God! Let us learn to use the Law of God to lead others into the righteous fear of God, so that they may be saved from the wrath of God that is coming upon all men who have rejected the free gift of God. Let us pray then for the salvation of those who are lost, even those who hate us as Christ instructed us too do.
Let us always reverence (fear) God, and live grace filled lives so that others will be drawn to the Christ who died for them, who showed his love to us all when we were all still sinners in need of saving.
Let us always use the Law of God the way Jesus used it to bring conviction upon the sin sick souls of the lost, so that they might see their lost condition, and desire the cure God offers them.
