God's claims are now recognized, His rightful dominion over us is acknowledged, He is owned as God. The converted yield themselves "unto God, as those that are alive from the dead," and their members as "instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13). This is the demand which He makes upon us: to be our God, to be served as such by us; for us to be and do, absolutely and without reserve, whatsoever He demands, surrendering ourselves fully to Him (Luke 14:26, 27, 33). It belongs to God as God to legislate, prescribe, determine for us; it belongs to us as a bounden duty to be ruled, governed, disposed of by Him at His pleasure.
To own God as our God is to give Him the throne of our hearts. It is to say in the language of Isaiah 26:13, "O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name." It is to declare with the Psalmist, not hypocritically, but sincerely, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee" ( Psalm 63:1). Now it is in proportion as this becomes our actual experience that we profit from the Scriptures. It is in them, and in them alone, that the claims of god are revealed and enforced, and just so far as we are obtaining clearer and fuller views of God's rights, and are yielding ourselves thereto, are we really being blessed.
2. A greater fear of God's majesty. "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him" (Psalm 33:8). God is so high above us that the thought of His majesty should make us tremble. His power is so great that the realization of it ought to terrify us. He is so ineffably holy, and His abhorrence of sin is so infinite, that the very thought of wrongdoing ought to fill us with horror. "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be said in reverence of all them that are about him" (Psalm 89:7).
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10), and 'wisdom' is a right use of 'knowledge'. Just so far as God is truly known will He be duly feared. Of the wicked it is written, "There is no fear of God before their eyes' (Romans 3:18). They have no realization of His majesty, no concern for His authority, no respect for His commandments, no alarm that He shall judge them. But concerning His covenant people God has promised, "I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me" (Jeremiah 32:40). Therefore do they tremble at His Word (Isaiah 66:5), and walk softly before Him.
"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13). And again, "By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil" (Proverbs 16:6). The man who lives in the fear of God is conscious that 'the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good' (Proverbs 15:3), therefore is he conscientious about his private conduct as well as his public. The one who is deterred from committing certain sins because the eyes of men are upon him, and who hesitates not to commit them when alone, is destitute of the fear of God. So too the man who moderates his language when Christians are about him, but does not so at other times, is devoid of God's fear. He has no awe-inspiring consciousness that God sees and hears him at all times. The truly regenerate soul is afraid of disobeying and defying God. Nor does he want to. No, his real and deepest desire is to please Him in all things, at all times, and in all places. His earnest prayer is 'Unite my heart to fear thy name' (Psalm 86:11).
Now even the saint has to be taught the fear of God (Psalm 34:11). And here, as ever, it is through the Scriptures that this teaching is given us (Proverbs 2:5). It is through them we learn that God's eye is ever upon us, marking our actions, weighing our motives. As the Holy Spirit applies the Scriptures to our hearts, we give increasing heed to that command, "Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long" (Proverbs 23:17). Thus, just so far as we are awed by God's awful majesty, are made conscious that "Thou God seest me" (Genesis 16:13), and work out our salvation with "fear and trembling" (Phil. 2;12), are we truly profited from our reading and study of the Bible.
~A. W. Pink~
(continued with # 9)
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