Fear of the Lord

 The Thing This Nation Needs the Most

Now I learned from Don this morning that Brother Ed Cole whose two messages I heard on the two previous evenings and enjoyed so much, made a comment right at the close of his message this morning, and he said, «The thing that this nation needs most and the families in this nation need most is the fear of the Lord.» And I’m happy to tell you that that is the title of my message tonight – The Fear of the Lord. Now when I say the fear of the Lord some of you respond to that word fear, you say «I don’t like fear, I don’t want to hear that message, it’s not going to bless me,» and you more or less tune me out. Well you’re free to do that but it’s a big mistake, because you really have no idea of what you’re tuning out when you react against the fear of the Lord. In Isaiah 33, verse 6 there are eight little words at the end of that verse which say, the fear of the LORD is His treasure.

The fear of the LORD is His treasure. I’m telling you about the Lord’s treasure which He shares with His people. I wonder how many of you know or knew that verse was in the Bible. Eight words – the fear of the LORD is His treasure.

They’re eight words that come at the end of a verse in Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 6 – the fear of the LORD is His treasure. And I was asking myself why was that jewel of truth tacked on at the end of a verse in Isaiah and I came to this conclusion because God wants us to search for truth. Jesus said, Search the Scriptures for in them you’ll find the truth about Me. I’ve been a Christian more than fifty-eight years if you can believe that, and I think I’ve never read the Bible through less than two times in any given year.

So that’s means I’ve read the Bible at least one hundred and sixteen times and there are many, many passages in it I’ve read probably a thousand times or more. I think many of those people who refuse to give time to the Bible are suffering from a spiritual disease. And I’m going to tell you what the spiritual disease is. I call it spiritual laziness.

They can hold down a job, they can be a housewife, they can keep a spotless kitchen, they can cook wonderful meals, they can earn a good living in some honorable profession, they can be industrious in everything except one thing which is reading of the Bible. If you’re only lazy in one particular area of your life it’s not a natural laziness. It’s a spiritual laziness and it has a spiritual cause. And it’s cause is the enmity of Satan who wants to keep you from the thing that will help you more than anything else in your life.

«He’s persuaded me of something utterly untrue that the Bible is a dull or difficult book. It’s a message of life. It’s a message of love. Only through the Bible can you begin to know the measure of God’s love for you.

If you shut yourself off from the Bible, if you give it just a few brief moments or perhaps no time at all in a week, you’re shutting yourself off from the revelation of God’s wonderful love for you. Don’t be a spiritual pauper. Don’t accept the disease of spiritual laziness. You can be industrious and successful in almost every other aspect of your life, but when it comes to reading the Bible you flunk, you’re a dropout.

Now I’m going back to the theme which I announced, The Fear of the Lord. » We don’t need the fear of the Lord in our lives at all. I want to give you just a few simple facts from Scripture about the fear of the Lord.

What Is the Fear of the Lord?

So there’s never a time when the fear of the Lord ceases to be relevant. So the fear of the Lord is forever and it’s for all day long. In other words, there is no time in your life when you should not be in the fear of the Lord. Now many people have a very negative view of what is meant by the fear of the Lord.

First of all it is not natural fear. That’s not the fear of the Lord. There is a spirit of fear, a demon. I’ve dealt with probably say hundreds of people who needed deliverance from the spirit of fear.

It delivers us from the fear of man and it enables us to show respect and honor for the Lord. So what is the fear of the Lord? Well, I’ll give you just a few English words, none of which fully describe this extraordinary spiritual realm of being. Now Moses lived as close to the Lord as most of us. Reverence is a response to a revelation of God.

You cannot have reverence without revelation. A submissive attitude toward God is an expression of the fear of the Lord in our lives. When we’re high-handed, arrogant, self-sufficient, self-proclaiming as many of us are, that has nothing to do with the fear of the Lord. There is no fear of the Lord in a person who conducts himself like that.

What You Fear Is Your God

In Genesis 31 Jacob is talking to his uncle Laban, or his father-in-law Laban, and he’s saying, «You didn’t treat me right but God looked after me.» And in Genesis 31 and verse 42 he says to Laban, «Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed...» So he called God the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac. In other words, what Isaac feared was the true God. So what Isaac feared was his God. If you fear disease and sickness, that’s your god.

Then it’s very informative to study the fear of the Lord in the light of Jesus. God’s own beloved Son who pleased His Father all His life and all His days.

The Fear of the Lord in the Life of Jesus

«The spirit of the LORD Shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom And understanding, The Spirit of counsel and Might, The Spirit of knowledge And of the fear of the LORD». The first on is the Spirit of the LORD, that is the Spirit that speaks in the first person as God. The final manifestation of the Holy Spirit that marked out Jesus as the Messiah and God’s beloved Son was what?... the fear of the Lord. «His delight is in the fear of the LORD. »

If Jesus, God’s beloved Son, Messiah and Savior, was marked out by the fear of the Lord and if He delighted in the fear of the Lord, how can you or I ever dare to say we don’t need the fear of the Lord.

Conditions We Must Fulfill to Have the Fear of the Lord

Now I want to speak about the conditions that we have to fulfill to have the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord has to be taught. In Proverbs chapter 1 God is speaking to people who have rejected Him and He says some terrible words. I think sometimes we don’t really appreciate how terrible the things that are, are that God says.

Listen, this is what He says in Proverbs 1 verses 25 and following.

« Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD». You have to choose the fear of the Lord. And if you do not choose the fear of the Lord, God will not restrain His judgments in your life. Then Proverbs 1 and verse 7 says this.

«The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction». We can adopt a contemptuous attitude towards the fear of the Lord and just advertise our own foolishness. So you cannot associate with evil and have the fear of the Lord. If you’re going to have the fear of the Lord in your life you have to depart from evil.

If you have self-confidence and arrogance in your life, think you have all the answers, you have no place for the fear of the Lord. And another thing it says, depart from evil. We cannot combine evil and the fear of the Lord. I’ve been in love with the fear of the Lord for almost as long as I’ve been a Christian.

True wisdom is inseparable from the fear of the Lord. It’s not cleverness, because cleverness can be compatible with evil. But the fear of the Lord is incompatible with evil.

God Shares His Secrets With Those Who Fear Him

School, you can go to the best training center, even here, but without the fear of the Lord you are not a pupil of God. You can be a pupil of human teachers, but not of the Lord. And then another wonderful thought in the same Psalm, verse 14 of Psalm 25. «The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him.

And he will show them His covenant».

Isn’t that marvelous that if you fear the Lord He will share His secrets with you?

Nobody shares his secrets with an enemy. If you share your secrets with somebody that’s a person who’s intimate with you. God says, «The fear of the Lord is in life, I’ll share My secrets with you.» And He says, «I will show you My covenant». You know one of the most critical truths of the Bible is the truth of covenant.

In fact the whole Bible revolves around covenant. It’s the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Covenant is the theme of Scripture. But only those who fear the Lord understand covenant.

That’s why there’s so many covenant breakers in the church. That’s why there’s so many people who break the covenant of marriage, because they have no fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is an essential ingredient in a happy successful marriage. Without it a marriage can never function as it should.

I had an interesting conversation some years ago with a man and his wife. « No fear of God in our marriage». I think the fear of God is an essential ingredient in a happy Christian marriage. Praise God they repented and that man went on in his ministry to be successful.

I’ve not always been a successful husband. There are temptations in a marriage. There are very few men who don’t experience some temptation to break their marriage vows.

The Fear of the Lord Leads to Life and Satisfaction

I’ve given you a desire to know more about the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 10 verse 27 says this, «The fear of the LORD prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened». So listen, if you have the fear of the Lord in your life you will live longer than you would have without it. Doesn’t tell you how long you will live, but you will live longer than you would have lived without the fear of the Lord in your life.

And I’ve lived a long life and I need some more years of life because my job on earth is not finished. And I tell you I’m very careful to cultivate the fear of the Lord because it prolongs life. «In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence.» It doesn’t make you timid.



The fear of the Lord leads to life. He who has it will abide in satisfaction and will not be visited with evil. The fear of the Lord, verse 27, «The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to avoid the snares of death». And then Proverbs 22 verse 4.

«By humility and the fear of the LORD Are riches and honor and life». The fear of the Lord does not go with pride. It’s true in the life of Derek Prince. I have a record of serving the Lord for fifty-eight years and He’s given me riches - spiritual riches, and some material riches.

When my first wife and I got married we never believed we’d own a car. When I came back from the Middle East to Britain and tried to make myself known to the Pentecostals in Britain, God bless them, when they heard I’ve been a Fellow of Kings College Cambridge they couldn’t believe that I was a Christian. Well I mean You’re the one to decide that, Lord.

Fear of the Lord in the Life of God’s People

Now I want to give you just quickly some pictures of the fear of the Lord in the life of God’s people and we’ll turn to Psalm 2. Psalm 2 verse 11, «Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling.» That doesn’t make sense to the carnal mind. The two go together – the fear of the Lord and trembling. Acts 9 verse 31.

You see the carnal mind can’t understand that – the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. The fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It says about walking in the Holy Spirit and this is one of the marks of being full of the Holy Spirit incidentally, is submitting to one another in the fear of God. So all Christians should have a submissive attitude to all other Christians.

Well, I have no problem with women. Thirty years to my first wife, twenty years to my second wife. And both of them are now with the Lord and I am looking forward to joining them. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 15 through 19, and remember this is written to people who’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

«But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy. » People redeemed by the blood of Jesus. That’s the mark of a committed Christian. That’s the mark of a Christian who understands what it cost God to redeem him.

Brothers and sisters, I am really anxious not to do anything that would in any way belittle the price of the blood of Jesus. He paid for me with His precious blood. The most, in a way – I say this I’ll offend you – but one of the most terrifying things in my life is God paid for me with the blood of Jesus.

I do not argue with them, I do not reason them away, I do not explain them as out of date, because the fear of the Lord endures forever. Verse 3 – if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, So that’s prayer.

The fear of the Lord is this treasure. « I’m clever.» Let me tell you, when I was at school, Cambridge, we used to make fun of the religious people. And we quoted to them, I think it’s a poem of Longfellow – Be good sweet maid and let who will be clever. I’ve met far more clever people in my life than I have met good people.

It’s much easier to be clever than it is to be good. Then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. And I don’t believe those things can ever be separated. Lord.

You’ll remember that in Isaiah 11 it said, the fear of the Lord, the Holy Spirit will make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord and he will delight in the knowledge of the Lord. You cannot separate the knowledge of the Lord from the fear of the Lord. You don’t have more knowledge of the Lord in your life than you have fear of the Lord. I’m not talking about the religious fear that’s taught by the precept of men.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Bless His wonderful name. I’m so amazed at the grace of God. I’m much more amazed at the grace of God in my life than I was when I was first saved.

I’ve discovered all the things that God had to deal with. You cannot earn grace. Anything you can earn is not grace. You see all religious people have got the idea that they’ve got to earn something.

Well there are things we do earn, but not grace. Grace comes free, received by faith.

Summary and Application

I think I can say them by heart. «So that you incline your ear to wisdom.



How precious, how wonderful. Because the fear of the Lord cannot be separated from holiness, nor holiness from the fear of the Lord. Listen, I have a large family and praise God, almost all of them are walking with the Lord which is wonderful. Most, I think all my children have known the Lord from childhood.

They’ve walked with the Lord. But there can come a time in any persons life when you take things for granted that you have not right to take for granted. If you really feel here tonight that God has been awakening you to a need in your life of the fear of the Lord which is clean and endures forever, which prolongs your life, I’m going to suggest that you just do this in a moment. Now, seriously, you have really heard something tonight that stirred your desire.

This fear of the Lord is something I’ve never really understood. « I want to ask God here tonight to give it to me.» I want to ask god here tonight to give it to me if that's what you want I'm not going to call people forward to the front but i just want you if that's your response i want you to stand your feet right where you are right now and I'm going to ask the the musicians to come and lead us in the singing of a song which i believe is appropriate but now i want you who are standing to just quietly without being making yourself too audible just i want you to say these words to the lord when you are you ready say these words oh god my father i come to you through Jesus Christ my savior and tonight you have put in my heart a desire for the fear of the lord and I'm asking you from now on to lead me to teach me and to impart to me this wonderful treasure of the lord the fear of the Lord in Jesus name amen.