Deut 10:12-13
Moses asked the people of God, “What does the Lord your God require of you? To fear Him.”

Why does God want people to fear Him? That we may be blessed.

So we must see clearly: fearing and loving God and keeping His commandments isn’t for God to receive good from us but for US to receive good from Him

For our own good, shouldn’t we love God and fear Him?

But one isn’t born with the fear of God. It needs to be learnt.

Deut 4:10
God gathered the people to let them hear His words that they may learn to fear God. They’re also to teach their children how to fear God.

Deut 17:18-20
God specially instructs those who are kings to write for themselves a copy of the law of God. That they may read and learn how to fear God. Why did God Give this special instruction to Kings? Only when a king himself fears God can he lead his people to fear God. In this way, his country and people can be blessed by God. It’s unlikely any of us will be king of a country, but we may become the head of our household.

To lead our household, we ourselves must fear God. Only then can we bring our family and children to fear Him. Then, the whole family will be blessed.

Do you love your family and want them to be blessed by God? Should we not all the more learn to fear God such that they will be blessed.

Dear the Lord all the days of your life. Fearing God isn’t some one off thing, it is lifelong. Many believers fear God for an instant in time, that’s not difficult. They were once that zealous. They were once that willing to offer. They were once so God fearing. But all those have now become regrets, because they’re all in the past.

What about now? The student theological course has been conducted for many years. We see so many young people willing to put away the things of the world to sit down and learn about Him. Some are really good students who fear God. This brings us comfort. We hope they will be the future pillars of the church, the strength of the church; that they may be able to finish the work we are unable. But when they grow up and enter into society to work, they no longer use their strength to help the church but to focus on things in the world. Some are even deceived and depart from God. Some sin and fall away. This really brings heart pain. Truly, the higher your hopes, the greater your disappointment.

But we do not lose hope. We should continue to pray for them. To ask the spirit of God to move them. To hope that the word of God that has been implanted in them may be ignited again that they may fear and serve God.

We must learn to fear God all the days of your life. Fear God for as long as you live. Only when you do so will you truly be God fearing and be blessed.

What is fearing God/敬畏神?
Based on the two Chinese characters 敬畏:
敬 connotes something that is strict and in order
畏 connotes fear
So fearing God is something that is (1) orderly/strict and, (2) fear.

We may think being strict and orderly is something we ought to do. But having fear doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t we come to God full of joy since He has forgiven our sins? Why do we need to come before Him in fear? Isn’t it bad to worship God with such pressure in our hearts?

But if we think about it one step further, coming before God and worshiping Him with a heart that fears Him is good and something we ought to have.

Psa 2:11
We should serve God with fear. But not only with fear, but also with rejoicing. So worshipping God has both fear and rejoicing. It is a fearful joy/fear that’s also rejoicing LOL

Does this really exist?
Consider: While young, when our father is working outside, we are excited for him to come home because he’ll bring gifts and food. So we eagerly await his arrival because he brings gifts and grace. But our hearts also fear our father because we may have done things that aren’t right that may disappoint him. He might punish us. So a child waiting for his father to come home will both rejoice and fear. But this fear is good. It tells the child that he should stop doing that things that disappoint his father; he shouldn’t do things that enrage his father and result in punishment.

The heart that fears will be able to preserve and keep you. When we worship God, we need to both come before him orderly and with respect, and to fear Him. This is a good fear because it reminds us to be mindful of our actions. This fear causes us to keep His word and makes us be afraid of breaking His commandments. Such a fear pleases God.

Many people worship God but don’t fear God. On one hand, they worship God. On the other hand, they continue to sin.

They reckon God is love. That it’s okay to commit error, as long as you ask God for forgiveness after that. God’s forgiveness is to give you a chance to repent. But they make use of God’s grace to continue to sin. They don’t fear in God’s judgement; some don’t even believe there will be a judgement.

Why were the Corinthian church members such a mess? They reckoned there was no judgement. They thought: since the dead don’t resurrect, will there be judgement?

Their mindset was to eat, drink and be merry. When they die, that’s it.

But what if there’s a judgement? How then do we face the Lord? Hence we must have a God fearing heart. This is what He’s pleased with.

Why must we have a God fearing heart?

1. We fear God because He is the Creator
   Rev 4:10-11
   These verses tell us that we fear God because He’s the Creator. These 24 elders fell down before God to worship Him. They cast down their crowns before God. They expressed their greatest form of fear to God. Let us hear what they say.

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things”

Their fear and bowing down to worship is because they know God is their Creator.

When we worship God and fear Him, is it because we truly know He’s the Creator? When we see the wondrous workings of the whole creation; when we see the vastness of the whole universe, then we know how great God is! And feel how small humans are.

Yet God has chosen us to be His children. For the sake of saving us from our sins, He came in the form of Man to save us; to save us to be able to enter into His kingdom. If God didn’t create us, we wouldn’t exist. Since we now exist, should we not all the more thank and worship Him?

If God didn’t save us to be freed from sin, we’d face judgement in the future. Since that’s the case, shouldn’t we who have been saved fear and worship Him who judges in righteousness?

When a person truly understands His power in creation and salvation, the fear of God would naturally form in His heart. This form of fear would be able to motivate a person to willingly bow down before God and fear Him. This fear of God would make one willingly remove his crown and place it before God.

A crown of man represents his pride and authority; it also represents what a person values. If one is unable to put down what he values, he won’t be able to come before God and fear Him.

Consider Nebuchadnezzar, the king that had the greatest authority and power in that time period. Proudly he said, “Was not the great Babylon made through MY power and might!” To manifest His glory, before he could finish his words, a voice from heaven said, “You shall become like a cow until you realise that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men. He gives the kingdom to who He wills.” Nebuchadnezzar went mad until the days of his punishment were full. When they were up, he took off his crown and said to God, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise the Most High.” He didn’t dare to boast about himself but gave grace and honour to the Most High. Even King Nebuchadnezzar was able to take down his crown.

Is there any crown we have that we are unwilling to take down?

Someone who understands and fears God will willingly take his crown down and worship Him.

1. We worship God because God is holy
   Isa 6:1-5
   Here we see the glory and holiness of God. We hear seraphim praising God. The content of their prayers is ‘holiness’. Other than praising God is holy, they also say God is holy(?)

Let’s not be mistaken that holiness is just a characteristic of God. Actually all of God’s characteristics are holy.

We know that God is love. But if His love isn’t holy, then that love may be biased and not right. We all may have love but it may not be holy. That’s why our love can cause all kinds of problems. “My love is true!” No matter how true it is, can you go and love someone else’s wife/husband? This love may be true but such a love is not holy! Not only is this love immoral, it destroys families.

So the people of today have love but it’s an unholy love.

God is righteous/just. If His righteousness is not holy, can you imagine what will happen? Some people put justice in their pockets. They judge according to who the person is. If it’s a person they like, they’ll put justice in their pockets and take out mercy. “God is love. Should forgive him. Never mind one.”

If two parties make the same mistakes, why is one judged by justice, the other by mercy? Righteousness is often corrupted by relationships and money. But the righteousness of God is holy. There’s no way God will be biased or falsely accuse anyone.

The power of God is also holy. But many Christians who want to use the power of God for unholy things. Some pray hard for God to help them to win TOTO. They think it’s not a sin. “TOTO is something I use money to buy anyways. I just lack luck!” They use the holy power of God for unholy things to fulfil their greed and lust.

We can’t use the holy power of God to do things that are wrong.

The more you understand God is holy, the more you will fear Him. Whether it’s His love, righteousness, power, all are holy. So we have to come to Him with fear to ask for His love, righteousness and power.

The seraphim don’t just proclaim the holiness of God but also call men to be holy. This vision was specially shown to Isaiah. His response wasn’t ‘amen’ but ‘woe is me’! Why? Because he was a man of unclean lips. Before God who is holy, he was reminded of his unholiness, especially that he had unclean lips.

As a prophet, Isaiah often had to rebuke those in a lower position. He sees the sins of the people but didn’t see his own sins. He instructs the people to repent but forgets to do so himself.

So when seraphim praised God who is holy, he realised he was also unclean.

Of course he is much more holy relative to the people. There was no one there who loved God more than him. In such a scenario, how would he be able to see his unholiness?

But when he saw the holiness of God, he could immediately see his own uncleanness.

Sometimes we make the same mistake as well. We look left and right, we don’t see our own faults and think we’re better than everyone else. When we compare with others, truly we seem good, holier than other people.

But how about when we compare ourselves to God? Our spiritual nurture shouldn’t be compared with other people but the standard of God. Because judgement will be laid out by God’s standard on the last day, not according to those of Man.

So let’s not see ourselves as someone with good qualities relative to other people. The question is: have we reached the requirement God wants us to have?

The praise of the seraphim reminded Isaiah of his uncleanness, especially his unclean lips. For his mouth only instructed others but not himself. From then on he adjusted the direction of his service.

For us who usually speak on the pulpit, our mouths are used to instructing others, but not ourselves. No wonder members say, “Good thing I’m not a preacher!” LOL

But you may be an RE teacher. “Ok then I tell my children not to be one!”

How about being a parent at home? You’re also a teacher!

In some form or other, we are a teacher of others. Lips that teach others ought to know how to teach oneself.

Our God is holy. On one hand, we praise God who is holy. On the other hand, we use the same mouth that don’t edify. Would our holy God be pleased with that? Hence we must rely on the Holy Spirit to cleanse us of our uncleanness, that we may be able to come before God.

1. We fear God for He is the God that will judge
   Rev 14:7
   There was an angel flying in the midst of heaven proclaiming, “Fear God!” Proclaiming/saying with a loud voice ensures everyone hears it and also shows the message is important.

Amongst all the messages that’s been proclaimed, the most important is to fear God. Consider the last verse in Ecclesiastes. “This is the conclusion of the matter: fear God.”

God will bring every work into judgment, whether good and evil. Usually we say God will judge only when we do evil. Why is it written that God will judge good too?

It’s not enough to not just commit evil. We also need to ask ourselves whether we have done good. One day God will ask us whether we have done good. “Why didn’t you do that good even though you could’ve?”

Not doing good when we can is a sin. Even if we do do good, for whom are you doing it for? Is it for men’s applause or for God?

So under the judgement of God, whether good or evil, He will question. Therefore remind ourselves to fear Him and keep His commandments.

Rev 20:11-13
This passage talks about the judgement on the last day.
All the works the dead had done were written on the book.

We may have forgotten the things we have done when we were young. But God has already recorded everything we have done in our lives. How are we able to escape the judgement of God?

Good thing there’s another book: the Book of Life. It records those who believe in Jesus Christ and have their sins forgiven. If we believe in Jesus and are repentant, our names will be in the Book of Life and we won’t be cast into the lake of fire.

We hence need a God fearing heart to preserve our names in there Book of Life.

Heb 12:28-29
How can we keep our names in the Book of Life that we may enter heaven? Have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
The author also reminds us God is a consuming fire. We know fire is terrifying and dare not play with it. But a child doesn’t know its dangers. They play with it and get burnt. They only know after they get hurt, or only when they burn the whole house down. Adults should know fire is dangerous. Yet many Christians still play with fire in their faith. So the author of Hebrews reminds us our God is a consuming fire. In the future He’ll execute the judgement of consuming fire. We hence need a God fearing heart, serve God with reverence and godly fear. Otherwise we’ll face the judgement of consuming fire in the future.

Blessed is he who fears the Lord. Let’s ask God to help us be a person who fears God.