The Fear of the Lord

A member of my church asked me about the fear of the Lord. I promised to write them something. This is what I wrote.

You had asked about the fear of God. There are two kinds of fear in the Bible. One kind is the fear that a slave has before his cruel master. The Bible speaks to that when it says,

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 1 John 4:18

There is another kind of fear that the Bible talks about. This shows up in places like this:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Proverbs 9:10

This fear is not about relating to a cruel master. It's about understanding that we will be evaluated by God. So, there's this:

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile …  1 Peter 1:17

We will be evaluated. But don't think of that merely in terms of being in trouble. God will look at the works of faithful Christians who sincerely desire to do what is good and right, and He will reward them (even though there will still be much that isn't good in those works). Part of the motivation for working at sincerely desiring to do what is good and right is that we will be evaluated and rewarded.

There is also the flip side of this. Those Christians who do not work at sincerely desiring to do what is good and right will also be evaluated. They will suffer loss. And in some cases they will be excluded from the Kingdom. The last day will reveal that there was no love for Jesus.

I'm going to guess that this will raise other questions. If that's true, let me know.

Prayer Rewards

Matthew 6.5-6

Prayer has become something that I really enjoy. My morning prayers are a time with God that I look forward to. Each day is peppered with short conversations with the Father. A brief time of prayer is a part of my bedtime ritual. And just as my prayer life has grown in the past, I am confident that it will continue to grow in the future. In all of this the Father has been very good to me. My growing joy in prayer is because of His blessing. And yet, I know that there are too many Christians who struggle when it comes to prayer. It is for them a frustration and not a joy. So, this morning I am going to talk about prayer. It is my hope that this will encourage you all – both those of you who are frustrated with your prayers and those who aren't – so that you can enjoy the Father more.

My focus is going to be quite narrow. The sermon is actually about one word: reward. That's because this is what the is text is about: reward. Jesus said that the hypocrites who pray to be seen have received their reward. What's this about? Let's start by considering this idea of reward. It's not complicated. If you do 'A' then you'll get 'B'. If you satisfy some condition, you will enjoy a benefit. A reward is intended to motivate people to pursue some particular behavior. I remember one particular situation when I offered a reward to one of my children. We were at a Sears to have the kids pictures taken. There were only four at the time so that gives you a sense of how young they were. Things were backed up at the photo studio, and one of the kids was having a hard time waiting. She was beginning to come apart so I picked her up and told her, 'Do you remember the candy that you saw downstairs? If you behave well, I'll buy you some when we leave.' She held together and on the way out she got her reward. If you do 'A', then you'll get 'B'. Reward.

As with everything else in creation, this is a good thing that can be all twisted up and used in a completely wrong way. So, we find Jesus describing some of the people of His day. They were applying this notion of reward to their prayers. They were doing 'A' in the hope of getting 'B'. But they were doing it all wrong. He said, 'For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners...' That's 'A'. They were working for a reward and, as a result, had received it. They got 'B'. But what is this reward? Jesus tells us. '... that they may be seen by others.' The reward they were working toward was getting noticed. And they received their reward. But why was this so important to them? What was going on in their hearts? What did they hope to get out of being seen? They would get a reputation. They would be considered pious. 'Oh, he must be really religious. Look at him pray.' This is done by hypocrites to reinforce their opinion of themselves as being one of 'The Righteous'. This is basic to understanding these hypocrites. They tell themselves, 'I am Righteous. Everyone agrees. So, even God must be impressed with me.' This is why Jesus said to the Pharisees, 'I did not come to call 'The Righteous', but sinners to repentance.' It is this sense of being Righteous that these hypocrites are seeking when they pray. It's the same reward they expect when they give alms to the poor and when they fast, things that Jesus also talks about in this chapter. So, do you see why Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.' They wanted to be known as Righteous so that they could assure themselves that they really are Righteous. And that's what they received. They were known as Righteous. But they forgot Isaiah's warning. 'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags ...' They worked for a particular reward, and they were able to gain what they were working for. But it didn't provide the benefit that they were expecting. And right now, those who did not later repent and come to Jesus understand with utter clarity the foolishness of their choice.

So, Jesus warns His disciples. 'Don't be like them!' And then, He gives the alternative. 'But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.' The first thing to notice is that Jesus is not opposed to the use of rewards. In fact, He promises a reward to those who pray, that is those who pray properly. The wise use of rewards is biblical. And that makes sense. We pursue a goal, investing precious resources of time and energy because we believe that something good will result. We believe that our efforts will be rewarded. This is how we've been created, and that's how this universe works. As we've seen, this dynamic, like everything else, can be twisted by sin. But it still makes sense that Jesus uses the notion of rewards to encourage prayer. Investing time and energy in prayer is worth the effort. There will be a reward. Jesus says so.

This is quite helpful because it explains some things and points the way to the solution to some significant problems. So, the Christian who has not established the habit of daily prayer has a reason for his choice. Simply put, he does not believe that the effort required will yield an acceptable reward. So, he invests his resources – his time and energy – elsewhere because he things that those other activities will result in a reward that is worth the effort. So, to put it bluntly, this Christian doesn't believe Jesus when He says, 'If you pray, the Father will make it worth your while.' The lack of the discipline of prayer is simply an expression of the sin of unbelief. And that is actually very helpful. For one thing, it shows the seriousness of a lack of prayer. Calling Jesus a liar is not a safe thing to do. But this also points to a solution to this problem. As always, the solution for the sin of unbelief is repentance and faith. Admit the evil of what you have done, resolve to turn from it with the Spirit's help, and then come to Jesus for forgiveness and change. So, if you've given in to unbelief in this area, if you're not working at the discipline of daily prayer, you need to repent.

I'm going to speak to one particular group now. I'm going to speak you kids, and I'll tell you why. You might think that this thing about the discipline of daily prayer is just an adult thing so you don't have to concern yourself with it. It's not. It's a disciple thing. So, if you haven't established the habit of daily prayer, you need to. It may be that you need to repent of unbelief, or it may be that you just have never even thought about this. In either case, you need to begin to work on this today. There needs to be a time in every day that you set apart to talk to God. You fathers need to help your children in this making sure that this habit is being established.

Now, let me ask a question. When you pray, what is the reward that you are hoping for? You invest precious resources pray. What do you want in return? What is the reward? The hypocrites prayed because they believed that having a reputation as 'The Righteous' was a worthy reward. When you pray you also aim at some reward. What is it? I raise this question because what makes your prayers good or bad, right or wrong, is what you're aiming at. We are all tempted – and unfortunately we too often fall for this – to pray for things that feed our idols. Each week, I pray that God would bless my sermon so that it would make sense and be helpful to you. Is that good or bad? Well, it depends. Why do I want God to bless in this way? What is my heart aiming at when I pray for that? What's the reward that I desire? If I ask God to bless my sermons so that you would be impressed with me as a preacher, then the reward that my heart is aiming at is that my ego gets stroked. Being liked is considered by many a very worthy reward. Would Jesus agree with that? Do you see that it's not so much what we pray for but why we are praying for it? Jesus has nothing to say about what these hypocrites were praying about. It was all about why they were praying.

We need to admit that too many of our prayers are about the wrong goal. We want God to give us a life that is comfortable, the kind of life that will make us feel good. And so, we ask for a life that is not too difficult, with problems that are limited to things we can handle, kids that turn out well, where all the bills are paid and we end up with enough to retire on. And when something bad happens, something that isn't included in our description of a good life, we pray that it gets fixed real soon so that life can return to its normal comfort level. Is that the reward that Jesus promised? Is that why Jesus encouraged us to pray? No. The aim of our prayers is to be something entirely different from all of that. The central goal of our prayers is to know the Father, to rejoice in the Son and to be filled with the Spirit. So, from David: 'You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, O Lord, do I seek."' From Isaiah: 'Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near...' From Jesus: 'Seek first the kingdom of God...' The Bible is clear. Our chief goal is to seek our God and the advance His kingdom. True life is found in enjoying the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Does this mean that it is wrong to pray to be able to pay the bills or for kids who turn out well or any of those sorts of things? Absolutely not, as long as we pray for them in such a way that granting our requests leads to knowing our God better and advancing His kingdom further. You need to be careful. You need to pray wisely. The Pharisees prayed but only as hypocrites. They did not receive the Father's reward. The reward that they did seek out and actually received ultimately wasn't worth the effort. The target of our prayers is knowing God, Father, Son and Spirit, and being blessed with a sense of His closeness, a closeness that overflows from our lives so that He will look good to a watching world.

One last thought, and it's very important that you see this. Jesus makes a promise: 'your Father ... will reward you.' If you leave here with the thought, 'I've got to work at this prayer thing. I've got to get it right so that I will gain the reward' and then you go to your favorite method of problem solving: being better organized, trying harder, getting up earlier, or whatever – what is that? It's salvation by works. It's telling yourself, 'I will gain a good relationship with God because of the things that I do, things like praying the right way.' Where's the Gospel in that? Praying well is a matter of grace. The Father's reward – which includes a growing and lively prayer life – is something He gives freely. We do not try to live in such a way so that we then can assume that God will have to bless. 'I'm so Righteous (look at how I pray) that God has to be pleased with me. Now I'll be blessed!' That's the way a Pharisee thinks. We do not come to the Father to pry some blessing from His stingy and demanding hands, confident of success because of things that we've done. We come with nothing; nothing except Jesus. We offer our requests to a Father who loves His children. And He loves His children simply because of Jesus. And the heart of our requests is this: 'Father, what I want more than anything is You. Bless me, Father, with a growing sense of your nearness to me. I ask this so that as I enjoy You people will notice and will want to join me in knowing You.' These are not magic words to repeat. They are to be the attitude of our hearts which is itself something that we ask the Father for. And those who pray like this will be rewarded.

For some of you, this sermon is intended by Spirit as an encouragement as you work at the discipline of prayer. Persisting in this is hard, and the evil one throws up all kinds of obstacles. You find yourself, at times, quite discouraged. But remember Jesus' promise. There is a reward. The Father will make it worth all the effort you invest. Take heart and continue the battle, looking to Jesus for the strength to do that. For others of you this sermon is a warning. The Spirit has pointed out your sin of unbelief. You are not working at the discipline of prayer. You need to repent of your sin. And to encourage you in this I would remind you of the promise. There is a reward. Jesus says so. Will you believe Him?

Rewards

[Originally preached 31 August, 2003]
Revelation 11.15-19

Once again John takes us right up to the age to come. The time of trumpets blaring their warnings is over. History as we know it is done. And how does John picture the inauguration of this new age? He pictures is as doxology. The twenty-four elders fall prostrate before God and worship Him, declaring their praises. The focus of their doxology is that God Almighty now reigns. The rebellious kingdom of the world is no longer. Now, all of creation submits to the Lord and to His Christ.

For a time, the nations raged, just as Psalm 2 describes it. God allowed that to continue – for a time. But finally the time has come for His own rage against those who rebelled and refused to repent. The time for judging has come. God dons His robes of justice and decides the fate of all. And what is the fate of the unrepentant rebels? Destruction. They will be brought to ruin. And that judgment is fitting. What was their goal but to bring God’s creation to ruin by their rebellion? Those who rebel receive justice. Not only have they rebelled against the ruler of all creation but they also refused His gracious offers of forgiveness. They heard and rejected the message of the trumpets. And so, their fate is at hand, and it is a fearful thing. They will endure the destruction of their persons forever. People you know, friends and relatives, are now included in this category. Their fate is horrible – unless they repent and entrust themselves to Christ. They need the Gospel.

But eternity not only a matter of destruction. The hope of the redeemed is to be realized. And how is that described here?

… the time for the dead to be judged [has come] and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great … Revelation 11:18

Let’s take a closer look at this. The notion of being rewarded may sound strange but it is actually found in the Scriptures quite a bit. Listen to another place where this shows up.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12

We find the same word in another passage.

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' Matthew 20:8

Here, our word is translated as ‘wages’. It refers to payment that is due. In some sense, Christians will receive a reward at the beginning of the age to come. And this reward will be some sort of payment given in light of what we have done here.

Now, it is very important that I be clear here. Our entrance into heaven is not a matter of what we do. Salvation is not a matter of reward and payment. On the Last Day when God confronts you and asks why He should receive you instead of condemn you, all you can do is look to Christ. You have entrusted yourself to Him. If you are to be found as acceptable by the Father, it is only because Jesus will at that time say, ‘Father, this one is mine.’ Nothing that we do or say or think will have any bearing with the Father. It is all a matter of what Jesus will say. And God forbid that at that time Jesus should say of any of us, ‘Depart from Me. I never knew you.’ Our only hope is Jesus confessing our name to the Father. Our entrance into an eternity of bliss is only by the grace of Jesus received by the empty hands of faith. Heaven is not a reward.

But having said that, there are still rewards to be handed out. Let’s ask a few questions of this. Will all the rewards be the same? Will all Christians be rewarded equally? There is a passage that illustrates what is going on here. It is a passage that applies first to pastors, but the implications apply to all the saints.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15

Paul is talking about pastors building up the Church. Some labor faithfully at this. Some don’t. Those who are faithfully laboring for Christ in His Church ‘will receive a reward’ while the others ‘will suffer loss’. This is one application of what our text is saying. On the Last Day there will be distinctions made among the Christians. Some will be rewarded greatly for what they have done. Others won’t be.

Now, our text has more to offer to help us understand how God will make these distinctions. And the key here is the titles that are used in the doxology. The twenty-four elders use four titles to describe Christians: servants, prophets, saints, those who fear God’s name. Each one points to some aspect of the calling of a Christian. Let’s consider each. The first is servant. I really think that the illustration of the blank check that I used a couple of weeks ago captures well the notion of a servant. ‘Here’s my life, Lord. It’s a blank check for You to fill in any way that You want. Use me as You wish. I’m ready to serve You any way You want.’ A great example of this servant attitude is Mary, Jesus’ mother. Gabriel told Mary, ‘God wants to radically change your life. He knows the plans that you had for a nice, quiet life with Joseph. All that is now going to be changed. God is calling you to something very different.’ And what was Mary’s response? ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.’ That’s a servant. Then there’s the title of prophet. You’ll remember that this concept was used earlier in chapter 11. The Church was called to prophesy, to live and declare the Gospel to a hostile world. And as we saw, that mission was filled with trouble and opposition. But the faithful prophet perseveres in the task nonetheless. Then there’s the title of being a saint. This is the language of being God’s holy ones, the ones whom He has set apart from the rest, to be different from the rest. Here, the biggest problem is our own hearts and the sin that remains in those hearts. Life here is a wrestling match to fight sin and pursue holy living. So, you see how Christians are described here: servants, prophets, saints. But we are not these things in a vacuum. We are such in the context of a hostile, fallen world. Being faithful to these aspects of our calling is hard. We’re in a battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. There are temptations associated with each title: to give Jesus a very large check, instead of a blank check, to downplay the prophetic message of the Gospel in the face of the opposition, to allow yourself to act a bit like the common sinners around you instead of God’s special people. Faithful living as Christians is hard. There are many opportunities for short cuts and compromises. Remember the seven churches. But our text is telling us that as we do live faithfully, there is a reward. The message of our text is that there is a payoff for your pain as you strive to live for Christ according to His calling. There will be those Christians who will reap great rewards because they have been very faithful. These, in their particular calling, have striven to honor Christ. And that will make a difference on the Last Day. All Christians get to enter heaven. We are saved by grace alone. But there will be rewards handed out when we get there, each according to what he has done.

Now, for an important question. What are the rewards? What kind of payment are we talking about? Is it going to be a mansion that is a little bit bigger than the others, with a better view maybe? Is it going it be a larger crown that others will be able to notice? Obviously, these aren’t the rewards. But what will the reward be? The titles are helpful again. What is it that a true servant wants more than anything? What moves a prophet to speak to a hostile world? What encourages a Christian to push a little harder for holy living? The only true motive is a love for Christ.

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. Psalm 73:25

For many, the hope of heaven is seeing loved ones who have gone before or enjoying a life free from frustration or the equivalent of lolling in the sun on the beach. We will do things as enjoyable as these, but none of these is at the top of the list. The greatest hope of heaven is to be with Jesus. The faithful servants, prophets and saints will enjoy there, in the age to come, what they longed for here, in this fallen world: more of Jesus, a deeper experience of Him, a more intimate relationship with their Lord. Having more of Him will make all of the struggles and suffering here worth it. In fact, for these, there will be no comparison between the two. Yes, we will see loved ones, and sin will be no more and all of the tears will be wiped away. But more than this, Jesus will be there. And those who have suffered for His name here will be closer to Him there.

Now, I’m going to guess that some of you had the thought, ‘But didn’t he leave out one of the titles? What about ‘those who fear God’s name’? Well, I haven’t forgotten it. It fits right here. Do you remember the time when, in the middle of His ministry, Jesus was about to send out the Twelve? He was sending them out into a hostile world and wanted to say something that would encourage them when they faced opposition. Listen to what He said.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28

The faithful Christian who is striving against the world, the flesh and the devil knows something very clearly. The battle is real. This Christian tells himself. ‘I can falter in this. I can be fooled, overcome big time, even to the point of turning away from Christ. I remember Judas. If that happens I’ll have to face an angry God, not as a child but as a rebel who has rejected Him.’ What else could Jesus’ words mean? So how does the faithful Christian do in response? Fearing Him ‘who can destroy both soul and body in hell’, the faithful Christian prays – a lot. He prays out of an awareness of Satan’s great strength and ability to deceive. He prays out of an awareness of the power of the flesh. He prays out of an awareness of the lurking allurements of the world. He prays out of an awareness of his own profound weakness. And he prays out of a great desire to please Christ. ‘Lord, if You don’t give me the grace that I need there is no hope for me. I want to serve You without limitations. I want to live and speak the Gospel to this rebellious world. I want to be that different kind of person that You have redeemed me to be. But without Your grace it isn’t going to happen. Give me Your grace so that I might fulfill your calling and honor You while I’m here.’ Those who want to fulfill those titles and who understand the fear of God, pray. And they pray a lot. There will be no rewards for those who do not pray. And that is because there is no way to be faithful as a Christian if you do not pray. And it is entirely possible that for these there will be no heaven either.

I hope that you can see the impossibility of becoming one of those who are greatly rewarded on the Last Day. I hope that seeing this drives you to prayer, out of fear but also out of love. And as you pray, watch. See how the Spirit does His amazing work in your life. See how faithfulness grows in you as you fight battles and overcome enemies. As you pray watch the good things that will happen through you until the Day of rewards comes.

From this morning's Bible reading

'Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.' Matthew 6:1

So, what's my motivation for doing things the right way? A reward?!? That doesn't sound very Reformed.