What’s the Real Problem with Fearing Man?
00:00:00.000 | (music)
00:00:04.000 | Well, what's the big deal with fearing man?
00:00:08.000 | What's the problem with trying to impress one another? The desire for
00:00:12.000 | pure approval. That dopamine hit that we get when
00:00:16.000 | we impress others. That desire to be admired.
00:00:20.000 | What's the problem with it all?
00:00:24.000 | Well, on Monday we looked at 1 Peter 3.15 and there we saw that the commission that we
00:00:28.000 | honor Christ or revere Christ in our hearts. It's a text
00:00:32.000 | about fearing God. And it brought back to mind a sermon Pastor John preached
00:00:36.000 | 42 years back in the fall of 1980.
00:00:40.000 | I wanted to share a clip from that old sermon today that we talked about
00:00:44.000 | on Monday. Here's 34 year old Pastor John to explain this
00:00:48.000 | connection between revering Christ and dying to the approval
00:00:52.000 | of others. What is this reverencing
00:00:56.000 | the Lord Christ in our hearts? What's this
00:01:00.000 | amazing thing that has the power to turn the fear
00:01:04.000 | of man into hope and the power always to give us a
00:01:08.000 | reason for the hope that is in us that we can
00:01:12.000 | speak to others? Now, to answer that question
00:01:16.000 | in accord with the immediate
00:01:20.000 | context, what we need to do instead of importing
00:01:24.000 | our ideas in there and say, "Well, everyone knows what reverence is," is to
00:01:28.000 | notice what Peter's doing. Peter is quoting
00:01:32.000 | from Isaiah. He's quoting from Isaiah
00:01:36.000 | chapter 8 verses 12 and 13. And I'd like you to
00:01:40.000 | look at that with me. Isaiah chapter 8 verses
00:01:44.000 | 12 through 13. He's taken this quote that God
00:01:48.000 | gave to Isaiah for his day and he's adapted it
00:01:52.000 | for his own situation. God gave Isaiah
00:01:56.000 | a warning in these verses about how he should
00:02:00.000 | feel about his adversaries and about how he should feel about
00:02:04.000 | the Lord God. We'll start reading at verse 11 of Isaiah
00:02:08.000 | 8 and you'll hear immediately the similarity to 1 Peter.
00:02:12.000 | "The Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me and warned me
00:02:16.000 | not to walk in the way of this people, saying, 'Do not call
00:02:20.000 | conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear
00:02:24.000 | what they fear, nor be in dread. But reverence the Lord
00:02:28.000 | of hosts; let him be your fear, and let him be
00:02:32.000 | your dread.'" You can see clearly that Peter was alluding to this text.
00:02:36.000 | Not an exact quotation, but an adaptation for his own
00:02:40.000 | situation. God had warned Isaiah, "Don't fear what men fear.
00:02:44.000 | Fear me. Reverence me in your hearts." Peter takes it, adapts it
00:02:48.000 | to the people who are being persecuted in his own day and says, "Don't fear what
00:02:52.000 | men fear. Reverence the Lord Christ." He puts Jesus right in the place
00:02:56.000 | of Jehovah in the Old Testament, which is done more than once
00:03:00.000 | in the New Testament. So if we can find out what Isaiah meant
00:03:04.000 | by reverencing or regarding as holy or sanctifying,
00:03:08.000 | depending on which translation you have, the Lord in his heart
00:03:12.000 | then will have a sound and solid foundation for determining what Peter
00:03:16.000 | meant when he said, "Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts."
00:03:20.000 | Now, verse 14 of Isaiah 8 makes it very
00:03:24.000 | clear what Isaiah means by reverence God.
00:03:28.000 | It means, "Fear him
00:03:32.000 | instead of fearing men, or dread him
00:03:36.000 | instead of dreading men." It says,
00:03:40.000 | "Reverence the Lord of hosts; let him be your fear;
00:03:44.000 | let him be your dread." So that's
00:03:48.000 | Isaiah's, or God's, explanation of what it
00:03:52.000 | means to reverence the Lord in your heart.
00:03:56.000 | But now, probably, if you're really with me, you're saying,
00:04:00.000 | "But surely God doesn't want
00:04:04.000 | his chosen people to walk around
00:04:08.000 | filled with the emotion of fear
00:04:12.000 | towards God." That wouldn't be a very
00:04:16.000 | exciting invitation, but only one of
00:04:20.000 | misery. But that's not what God meant here, and we can
00:04:24.000 | see that it's not what God meant if we just look at the next phrase in verse 14
00:04:28.000 | where he promises that those who do fear him, for
00:04:32.000 | then he will become a sanctuary.
00:04:36.000 | And then he goes on and talks about what he will become for those who don't believe
00:04:40.000 | him, but he will become for those who fear him a sanctuary. Now, a sanctuary
00:04:44.000 | is a place where you feel peace
00:04:48.000 | and security and hope.
00:04:52.000 | So I don't think it would be fair to say this text is
00:04:56.000 | teaching that we're always cringing when God is
00:05:00.000 | our God. That sounds kind of paradoxical.
00:05:04.000 | Let God be your dread, and he will become your sanctuary.
00:05:08.000 | But that's what it says. But it's not really as paradoxical
00:05:12.000 | as it seems if we take verse 14 to mean not
00:05:16.000 | be filled with the emotion of fear
00:05:20.000 | towards God all the time, but rather take it to mean something
00:05:24.000 | like this. If you reverence
00:05:28.000 | God, you will consider the
00:05:32.000 | prospect of displeasing him as a more fearful
00:05:36.000 | prospect than displeasing men.
00:05:40.000 | That's what it means to let the Lord be your fear. The
00:05:44.000 | prospect of offending or displeasing God
00:05:48.000 | will be a more dreadful or a more fearful prospect to you
00:05:52.000 | than worrying about what men can do to you.
00:05:56.000 | The degree of Isaiah's reverence
00:06:00.000 | for God was the same as the degree of his desire
00:06:04.000 | not to displease God.
00:06:08.000 | Now, what in this particular context in Isaiah 8
00:06:12.000 | displeased God? What here in these
00:06:16.000 | several verses did God want Isaiah to avoid?
00:06:20.000 | Because it would have displeased him. And the answer is given in verse
00:06:24.000 | 12, "Do not fear
00:06:28.000 | what they fear, and do not be in dread."
00:06:32.000 | God would have been displeased with Isaiah
00:06:36.000 | if Isaiah had feared men
00:06:40.000 | or feared what men could do to him.
00:06:44.000 | Why? Why is God so displeased when
00:06:48.000 | we, his people, fear men?
00:06:52.000 | Why does that offend God? Isn't the answer this?
00:06:56.000 | He has made promise upon promise
00:07:00.000 | upon promise that he would take care
00:07:04.000 | of us, and if we believe those promises, it should
00:07:08.000 | take away fear of men. It should fill us with
00:07:12.000 | confidence and hope if we believe those promises.
00:07:16.000 | But if we fear men,
00:07:20.000 | then it's a sign, isn't it, that we're not believing
00:07:24.000 | those promises to take care of us. And when you
00:07:28.000 | don't believe an honest man, he ought to be offended
00:07:32.000 | and displeased because you don't trust him.
00:07:36.000 | And so it is with God. God had said to Isaiah, for example,
00:07:40.000 | in chapter 41, "Fear not." And he
00:07:44.000 | gives some reasons. "For I am with you. I am your God.
00:07:48.000 | I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will hold you up with
00:07:52.000 | my victorious right hand. For I, the Lord your God, hold
00:07:56.000 | your right hand. It is I who say to you, 'Fear not.
00:08:00.000 | I will help you.'" You can just see God pleading with
00:08:04.000 | Isaiah and the people of Israel, "For goodness sakes, believe me."
00:08:08.000 | Chapter 35, "Say to those who are fearful,
00:08:12.000 | who have a fearful heart, 'Be strong. Fear not.
00:08:16.000 | Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with
00:08:20.000 | recompense. He will come and save you.'"
00:08:24.000 | Now, there are many, many such promises
00:08:28.000 | in Isaiah and in the whole Old Testament. And therefore,
00:08:32.000 | if Isaiah fears the threats of men, he is casting
00:08:36.000 | his vote against the trustworthiness of God.
00:08:40.000 | And he does not reverence God in his
00:08:44.000 | heart. But if he does not fear men,
00:08:48.000 | but instead fears to displease God
00:08:52.000 | and thus trusts in God's promises, then he is reverencing
00:08:56.000 | God in his heart. Yes, if you reverence
00:09:00.000 | God, you will consider the prospect of displeasing Him
00:09:04.000 | as a more fearful prospect than displeasing man.
00:09:08.000 | Sobering. That's a lesson we are all learning,
00:09:12.000 | I guess. This was a clip from John Piper's sermon way back on
00:09:16.000 | October 19, 1980. It's titled, "Make a Case for Your Hope."
00:09:20.000 | The whole audio recording is online at DesiringGod.org.
00:09:24.000 | And Pastor John reflected on the making of this sermon, a process he
00:09:28.000 | has not forgotten all these many decades later, as we heard him recount
00:09:32.000 | on Monday in ABJ 1840. Check that out, too, if you didn't hear
00:09:36.000 | that. And if you have a John Piper sermon clip to share, email me.
00:09:40.000 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the time stamp of where the clip
00:09:44.000 | happens in the audio. Make a note of what stands out to you. Put the word "clip" in the subject line
00:09:48.000 | of an email and send it to me at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org
00:09:52.000 | That's an email address. AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org
00:09:56.000 | I'm your host Tony Reinke. We are rejoined
00:10:00.000 | in studio with Pastor John when we return on Friday.
00:10:04.000 | We'll see you then.
00:10:06.000 | (Silence)
00:10:08.000 | (Silence)
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