To Fear The Lord Is Right

"To Fear The Lord Is Right" – Psalm 25:12-14 “Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity… The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him.” This is not a paralyzing fear but a reverential one that leads to obedience and humility; and our greatest advantage comes when we decide to fear God. The study walks through the three verses: the question of fear and the acknowledgment of His greatness and holiness; the promise that He will teach the way, because the upright heart does not err for lack of heavenly direction and God instructs the will without forcing it; the prosperity that occupies the dwelling of contentment, which does not depend on abundance; and the intimate communion, that select friendship carnal minds cannot imagine, a path the eagle's eye does not know. It closes with Noah, Abraham in Genesis 18:17, and the disciples of Luke 24: friends who walk together share their secrets.

I. It is right that we fear Him.

A. The church is one body, and it is right that we all fear Him.

1. As the body of Christ we are not a little today and a little tomorrow: it is wholly.

2. Our greatest advantage comes when we decide to fear God.

B. “God is not to be feared, God is mercy.” And who made hell?

1. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

2. Life is not to make us happy; if the first principle is to fear God, we become warriors.

3. Life punishes without rod or whip: it need not be published, life will bring it.

C. Whoever fears God does not live in spectacle nor in uproar.

1. “I fear God”: that provokes me to have faith.

2. In fearing Him, we have God on our side.

II. Who is the man who fears the Lord? (v. 12).

A. It is a deep respect and reverence that acknowledges His greatness, power and holiness.

1. If the church is right or wrong, God will see to it: it is not a mortal's business.

2. God comes out to defend His name, and He defends us if He wills.

B. At conversion, the old creature must die at once.

1. To stand in two waters is not to be converted: darkness cannot bear light.

2. Like the dark room: with light you know where to walk and do not stumble.

3. One is not one way in church and another outside: it is constant.

C. It is not a paralyzing fear, but a reverential one.

1. It leads to obedience, to humility and to seeking a life that pleases God.

2. The one who made hell is God; Satan has authority over no one.

3. Present fear begets eternal security.

III. He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

A. Those whose heart is upright will not err for lack of heavenly direction.

1. To be converted is to leave the old creature and begin a new life.

2. Whoever has known the Lord is confused by no one: no powers, no principalities.

3. When God sanctifies the heart, He illuminates the mind.

B. We all wish to choose our own way; what mercy when the Lord directs that choice.

1. He makes the free choice be the good choice.

2. If we make His will our own, He gives it to us; but we must seek it.

C. God never forces our will: He instructs, teaches and shapes us in doctrine.

1. For that He left us the Scriptures: from Genesis to Revelation there are laws written.

2. Not loving His law devastates us: from passion to lukewarmness, and then to coldness.

3. It is we who expel God from our being, because we love nothing of His.

IV. His soul will abide in prosperity (v. 13).

A. Prosperity is to be well emotionally, mentally and physically.

1. He will occupy the dwelling of contentment: that space, that room.

2. There is a storm overhead and there is contentment, because he occupies that room.

B. Problems come and go; in the end what they do is test you.

1. “My peace I leave with you; not as the world gives do I give.”

2. My tears are for worship: let them be the costly perfume of that woman.

3. If you arrive distressed, the whole atmosphere is shaken with distress.

C. It is not abundance: contentment is what gives true comfort.

1. One can sleep on a cot as on the softest bed.

2. On the mission fields, sleeping was not the problem, nor was the food.

3. The holy fear of God destroys the sinful fears of man.

V. The intimate communion of the Lord (v. 14).

A. It means family relationship, confidences and select friendship.

1. If you do not pray, there is no communion, and the Holy Spirit cannot dwell.

2. Carnal minds cannot imagine it: one must feel it to know it.

B. The higher spiritual life is, of necessity, an obligatory path.

1. The carnal cannot function in the body of Christ: spirit and flesh do not go together.

2. It is a path the eagle's eye does not know and the lion's cub cannot follow.

3. Neither wisdom nor natural strength can force the door of that inner chamber.

C. When God looks upon the earth, He looks for who is spiritual.

1. The saints hold the key to the heavenly riddles.

2. The natural man does not discern the things of the Spirit; it is like reasoning with a blind man about colors.

3. Like the child and the jeweler before a pearl: both see it, but they do not know it alike.

VI. Friends who walk together share their secrets.

A. Walking with God is the best way to know His mind.

1. If the Lord does not give you His secret, it is because He judges that you do not fear Him.

2. What leaves us bare is the absence of fear toward Him and toward His word.

B. Noah walked with God, and God revealed He would destroy the old world and keep him in an ark.

C. Abraham walked with God, and God let him into His private counsel (Genesis 18:17).

1. “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

D. In Luke 24, Christ made Himself known in the breaking of the bread.

1. He walked the road with them with His face veiled, and at the end He lifted the veil.

2. God never hides His face from the one who has communion with Him.

3. If we insist on not knowing Him, the “woe” will be for the mortal.