Most people are frightened quite easily, an unexpected pop of a balloon will do it, an automobile horn at the right, or wrong, time, the visage of an unexpected sight, it doesn’t take much for most folks. But we are an odd bunch, so to speak, the one hundredth day in battle is not quite as terrifying as the first, we can get used to being afraid. “Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.” (Psalm 94:7)
People need to be reminded of what it means to be afraid, or they become emboldened, when there is nothing to fear, pride begins to enter into that place in a man, and “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Prov. 16:18) The haughty spirit is one of self-emboldenment, it does not fear God as it should, in the worst-case scenario, it understands that there is a Sovereign Lord of all creation, but it does not honor Him as such, it will do as it pleases, as much as it is able.
Satan is the epitome of a haughty spirit, when he speaks to the Most High, he speaks to Him as an equal, there is no reverence, there is no fear, there is pride. The fear of the Lord is reverential trust and a hatred of evil, those who do not trust in Him do not fear Him, they do not even respect Him, and for fallen angel and mankind to do so is, to put it bluntly, very stupid, for God is the bringer of fear.
The man who has become emboldened because of his pride is the most disgraceful being on the planet, for not only does he not fear the Lord God, but he has set himself upon the throne of his own life, attempting to usurp all authority over him. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) It is one thing not to fear death, it is quite another to not fear the eternal resting place of the soul.
Here is the deceit of many religious organizations, works performed are meant to appease God and the decision that He will make towards that individual’s final home, and here is where the Evangelical churches have failed, an all-encompassing grace that need not be shown to others by the works of the Holy Spirit through them. Both rest in the pride of self-accomplishment, and neither understand what it truly means to be afraid.
In this life, those who have been crucified with Christ do not fear, neither man or anything that may happen to them, but their flesh does, the flesh can never be completely mastered in this life. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:19) must be balanced with, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Cor. 9:27) And the battle is constant.
What frightens you may not have any effect upon others whatsoever, but of that last day, your last day here on earth, all should contemplate with fear and trembling. The lost cannot comprehend the words in this letter, they have fear, for on that final day they can only hope in what they have imagined during their lives to be true, for the pride filled individual who understands there is a God in heaven who rules in the kingdom of men, (Daniel 4:17) but will not honor Him as such, his pride will ceases a few moments after he opens his eyes in hell. Those who by works have sought the benevolence of the Lord, those who thought in this life that the grace of God would allow them to live their lives as they pleased will know great fear, they will be afraid.
Those who have been born-again understand the fear of the flesh and what those final moments here may be like, not all die peacefully in their sleep who follow Christ, but the assurance of the living God, by faith in Jesus Christ, overrides that fear, they have no need to be afraid. Death is the door that the Lord has chosen for all to enter into eternity, it would be wise of all who are alive today to contemplate that door often, for what awaits you on the other side of it will never be altered for all eternity.
