For many, the fear of the Lord has nothing to do with praising His Holy Name, as we discussed in our previous study, but revolves around, in the most general terminology, in being afraid of Him. These individuals, when they have sinned, will seek a type of respite, as it were, a quick “sorry about that” thought goes through their minds, and then life continues unabated. As we can easily tell, this is not true repentance, a turning away from the sin that has found a foothold in their life, and as we also saw, this is a form of forced attrition, for they seek not forgiveness because of the harm they have done to our Lord by being disobedient to His will, but so that they will not have to face any punishment.
I use the term punishment here and not the word chastisement, for I would personally doubt the salvation of any man that would so easily dismiss a continuing sin, to pursue it with disregard to our Lord, and count as nothing the blessings of God they could incur by true repentance from it.
We also touched briefly on religious organizations around the planet that teach that only those in a hierarchical position can ensure that the sins of an individual will be removed, or that we do not have direct access to the Father by Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. For these I have but one statement, pray for them that they would see the light of the truths of the Word of God. Which leads us naturally to a related topic in the study of the Fear of the Lord, Romans 3:18) “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
It amazes me how a man can be afraid, or at least pay a greater reverence, to someone who is larger in stature than themselves, how many grovel in the presence of someone in a position of ‘stardom’ when they are in their midst, or carry superstitious beliefs that have no basis in reality, yet will give no reverence to the one by which all things consist. (Col. 1:17) To these our Lord Jesus Christ is a fairy tale, a myth from the past at best, and the Lord our God is just some ‘invisible sky daddy’ that those with a need for a ‘crutch’ in life have made up in the delusion of their own minds. These are they which hold fast the lie of the teachings of evolution, that believe that science is the way to truth, and that luck, chance and coincidence are the rulers of this world. They are their own gods, and though there be no factual evidence for what they believe, the truth that they make up for themselves as they go through life is all they desire to hear. The blinding of their minds by Satan of the truth of the light of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, has led them to a place of self-delusion within themselves, they believe that they are the masters of their own reality, and I am sincerely sorry to say this, but many of these will die in their sins. They have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. (Rom. 1:25)
There is hope though, for although we do not know where the Spirit goes, (John 3:8) we do know that during the tribulation period, though the religious will be sent a strong delusion, (2nd Thess. 2:11) these lost souls that have not heard, nor paid any attention to the teachings of Scripture will be shown His terrible power, that He does exist, and many will come to the knowledge of His saving grace during that time through the showing of His wrath.
There will be untold amounts that will remain lost though and their request will be for the rocks to fall on them, (Rev.6:16) for they will remain as wicked, depraved and perverse as they had been before, and many of these, my friends, are called ‘good men’ by the world. To discount the incredible price that was paid for them on the cross of Christ, (1st Cor. 6:20) to count as worthless the blood that was shed for all, (Matt. 26:28) is the epitomy of the word disrespect, and the Lord Jesus will judge them harshly for it.
I have always had difficulty in deciding which is the greater sin against our Lord, those who know of His existence, not in a heart knowledge mind you, but in head knowledge only, yet a knowledge none the less, and treat sin against Him and the counterfeit repentance toward it as nothing, or those that have seen His life as nothing more than what was stated earlier, a fairy tale. For either that do not accept Him, Romans 1:20 is one of the most telling verses, for if you will notice, no excuses will they be able to justify. Science could not give them an answer for how a newborn hawks first journey is over three thousand miles to a place it has never been before, or how a sea turtle can return to the same beach it was born on twenty years earlier to give birth after traversing the ocean. And, my friends, mythology can not explain an empty tomb.
If you have been born again, if your faith rest solely in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, then you have been justified, and the just shall live by faith. It is not instinct only that the hawk, the turtle or any other of God’s creatures know, it is the will of God that they follow the path He has set for them, as we are to do. The creatures of His creation have no choice, instinct is their master, and whether they know or not that the master’s hand is leading them, only God knows. But the brute beast, (2nd Peter 2:12) the individual that our Lord has given free will to has no excuse for the reason that he has denied the most Holy One of the reverence rightly due Him as creator and Lord of all.
If pride does not die within them, they have no hope, if self is not sacrificed on the alter of unending love, they will know only hopelessness for all eternity. “It is appointed a man once to die, then the judgement.” (Heb. 9:27) As long as they are breathing, there is hope.
Remember when you are speaking to them about the one true hope, that they are either blind, or have been blinded, and that only the truths of the Word of God and the love that Jesus Christ has for them can show them the darkness they are in and the pathway to the light. Be the light of the world that you are commanded to be, (Matt. 5:14) for their sake and for the Glory of God.
