Relationship of the Fear of God to Our Conduct

Albert N. Martin

We saw in the last chapter that whenever the fear of God is present it is because God has applied with power the New Covenant blessings purchased by the blood of Christ. The fear of God is thus a blessing that is inseparably joined with the joy and the realization of the forgiveness of sins. As one author has so beautifully said, “The heart is shy of a condemning God but closeth with and adhereth to a pardoning God.” Until a man knows the forgiveness of God based upon the blood of the everlasting covenant he will never rightly fear God. He may have terror of God; he may have a dread of God; but that terror and dread will drive him away from God. The fear of God couched in the consciousness of forgiveness is a fear that causes us to draw near to God and to cling to Him and to His ways.

Now we come to what I am calling the relationship between the fear of God and conduct, and I have two propositions to set forth. The first proposition is that the fear of God is the holy soil that produces a godly life. The second proposition is that the absence of the fear of God is the unholy soil that produces an ungodly life.

Holy Soil that Produces a Godly Life

What is the practical effect of the fear of God in the life of a child of God? Let’s look at several texts of Scripture in which we see men and women under a great variety of circumstances, and yet in each case where there is true godliness, it will be attributed to this soil of the fear of God.

The Example of Abraham

In the first several verses of Genesis 20 we are told that Abraham has been called out by the word of God. As he is sojourning with his wife, Sarah, he comes into the land of the Philistines. He knows that there is a heathen king there and he knows something of the practice of heathen kings when they see pretty women. So he reasons, “If I come into that area and that king sees my wife, he is going to set his desires upon her. I will be standing in the way, and therefore he will just dispose of me to get my woman. So this is what I will do: I will tell a half-truth; I will say she is my sister.” It was a half-truth. There was a blood relationship there, but Sarah was more than just his sister. The effect of Abraham’s half-truth on Abimelech, of course, was that he took Sarah into his house; but God restrained him from any sexual relationship. Then God revealed Himself to Abimelech and told him, “If do this you’re a dead man.” So Abimelech went to Abraham and said, “Why did you do this to me?” Notice Abraham’s answer in verse 11:

And Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.’ And moreover, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”

Do you see what he is saying? He says, “Abimelech, you asked me for the reason why I was fearful that you would think nothing of killing me and then taking my wife. It is because I reasoned this way. This is a heathen land. You are a heathen king. Since there is no knowledge of the true God, who has revealed Himself to me, therefore there is no fear of God. For where there are no right views of God there cannot be any fear of God. And if there is no fear of God, there will be no ethical sensitivity. And since the fear of God is absent, your conduct will be a reflection of the absence of His fear; therefore I did what I did.” Abraham assumed that the only soil out of which godliness could grow was the fear of God. And if that soil were not present, neither would the fear of God be present. So Abraham shows that very early in the history of God’s revelation there is an inseparable relationship between the fear of God and practical godliness.

The Example of Joseph

Let’s look at another instance in Genesis 42. Joseph’s brothers had come down to Egypt to get grain. Joseph was sitting on the throne there, second only to the pharaoh himself. Joseph had accused them of being spies and was “proving” whether or not they were, although he knew all along that they were his own brothers. To convince them that he was a trustworthy and honest man and that his commands were just, notice what he said in verses 18 and 19:

And Joseph said unto them the third day, “This do, and live; for I fear God: if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in your prison house; but go ye, carry grain for the famine of your houses.”

Joseph says, in effect, “I need give no other reason as a basis for my godly, honest dealings with you than that I am a man in whose heart there is the soil of the fear of God, and out of that soil will grow practical godliness.” So Joseph showed that he, like Abraham, understood the principle that the fear of God is that holy soil which produces a godly life.

God Sees All

A somewhat unusual injunction is found in Leviticus 19:14: “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but thou shalt fear thy God: I am Jehovah.” If a man is deaf, he can’t hear you. And if he can’t hear you, can he be hurt by what you say? No; yet God says, “Don’t curse the deaf man.” What God is saying is this: “Your conduct with reference to men must not be governed by their ability to retaliate against your wrongdoings. It must not be governed by its impact on your reputation before them. The one principle that is to govern all your conduct with all men in all circumstances is that My eye is upon you and I see. My ear is open and I hear.” Never let your conduct with any man be governed by any lower principle than this: How will God view that conduct? So what if the blind man can’t see if you trip him up—God sees it. So what if the deaf man can’t hear when you curse him—God hears.

This is why, if you are a student who fears God, you won’t cheat at school. If you are walking in the fear of God, your teacher could go on a three-hour recess while you are taking your final exam. It won’t make a bit of difference whether the teacher is there or not, so far as your honesty is concerned. Even if she is absent, you will put down only what you have learned. You will not sneak a look to the desk next to you; you will not pull out a crib sheet. But what if you are a cheater—a confirmed cheater? That tells you that you know nothing of the fear of God. So what if the teacher can’t see—God sees you! Or what if you are a young man who has two vocabularies—one you use around home and church and the other you use out in the ball field with your buddies. You can say your “Hells” and “Damns” right along with the rest of them. But you never let your dad or mom hear one of them. What are dad and mom in comparison to God? Doesn’t He hear? He knows every one of your “Hells” and “Damns.” He could give you the time, place, occasion and decibel level of every last one. If you are content that mom and dad don’t hear, and mom and dad don’t know, then it is an indication that you are not walking in the fear of God.

Adults face the same temptations and the same realities in many situations. Every April we sit down to fill out our tax return. We must be as careful to cut no corners as if every single tax agent from Maine to California was leaning over our shoulder. Why? Because we fill out that income tax form in the fear of God. We must be conscious that what we put on that form must pass the test of the eye of omniscience, not just the eye of the IRS agents. If you are able to cheat on your income tax statement and claim more deductions for the church than you actually gave, and if this is the pattern of your life, you know nothing of the fear of God. And God will bring it up as a witness against you in the day of judgment unless you repent.

It is this fear of God that makes a man in the office or the shop just as careful about flirtatious glances as if his wife were standing at his side, and she was a jealous woman. Have you ever seen a man who has a jealous wife? When she is with him, he is just like a horse wearing blinders. If you walk in the fear of God, you are a man with blinders. There is a check upon your eyes. Why? Because you know it is not ultimately what your wife sees and what she knows, it is what He sees and what He knows that matters, and you are seeking to keep a heart that is pure before His eyes. Any man who can be flirtatious with his looks and his words, if that is the pattern of his life, knows nothing of the fear of God.

Consciousness of the Eye of God

Another instructive real-life illustration of how the fear of God operates at a very practical level is found in the book of Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 5:14, Nehemiah says to the people, “Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.” In other words he says, for twelve years we have not used our official position as the means of personal gain. But he says this wasn’t always so: “But the former governors that were before me were chargeable unto the people, and took of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God” (verse 15). He says that he didn’t do what his predecessors did—i.e. use their position as a steppingstone to personal gain—“because of the fear of God.” The basis of his conduct was that the eye of God was upon him. He recognized that if he used his position for his own advantage, he would forfeit the smile of God. That was more constraint than was necessary to cause Nehemiah to walk in a path in which he refused to take advantage of others for the sake of personal gain.

Isn’t that one of the biggest problems in human relationships—people taking advantage of others for personal gain? We are insensitive to others’ needs in the pursuit of fulfilling our own needs. We are selfish in seeking to live to our own satisfaction while we trample over the needs of others. We are tightfisted in business dealings. We are unreasonable in expectations as parents. What is the great cure for all of this? It is to be able to say with Nehemiah, “Because of the fear of God.” In the most practical way, we again see the tremendous place that this principle holds in the life of God’s people.

The same is true now, in the New Testament age. The moment you, in your Christian life, cease to be governed in every relationship by the thought of your relationship to God in Christ, by the sense of His presence, by the reality of His smile, by the terror of His frown, then the very nerve that energizes you to press on to holiness is severed. Haven’t you found that to be so? What can motivate you when the thought of your relationship to God ceases to grip you? What frown can turn you from evil when the thought of God’s frown no longer turns you from evil? What smile can induce you to walk in the path of righteousness when God’s smile will no longer induce you? There is nothing else that can do it. When you have gotten beyond the holding influence of the fear of God, you have gotten beyond the sphere in which holiness can be perfected. The only soil out of which godliness grows is the fear of God.

An Eye Toward Pleasing God

Consider Colossians 3:22: “Slaves, obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh.” Paul says, “Though you have a gracious Master in heaven, you still have human masters on earth, and you are to obey them in all things. You don’t make your obedience co-extensive with your personal evaluation of whether what they have required is right and just.” No; he says, “Obey them in all things.” (The only exception is if they command you to do something contrary to the law of God.) And it is so essential that new believers learn that. Any new relationship into which you enter by virtue of faith in Christ does not cancel out the existence of legitimate earthly relationships. Do you think that suddenly you are exempt from speed laws and from obedience to civil authorities? No, you are not. No Christian is. Paul never taught such a doctrine.

Paul knows that there are two different ways that servants might “obey” their masters. They could, first of all, serve them , “with eye-service as men pleasers” (verse 22). But Paul says “not with eye service as men pleasers.” That is, don’t do your work with reference to the master’s eye, because in three minutes time your master is going to be gone. He will go off to his business in town, and his eye will be gone. Then what is going to motivate you? Then what is going to make you produce? What is going to make you work up a lather performing that very mundane task? You will have lost all your motivation if you are motivated by the master’s eye.

But there is another way in which servants may “obey” their masters—“in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord.” This is the climate in which Paul urges them to do their work. “In singleness of heart” means with a heart that is not divided between seeking to be a man pleaser and a God pleaser. It means with a heart that is single in walking and working in the fear of God—“fearing the Lord.” Is this to say that the only way a common house slave can do his work acceptably to God is to do it in the climate of the fear of God? Absolutely. The fear of God is to govern a very broad spectrum, all the way from a king reigning in righteousness (II Samuel 23:3) to a common house slave scrubbing dirt out of a hovel. Just like the servant, the only way that the king can perform his duties acceptably to God is to perform them in the climate of the fear of God. The eye of the master on earth is not the focus of concern, but the focus is the eye of The Master in heaven.

Practical Implications

Scripture clearly teaches that the only soil out of which a godly life can grow is the soil of the fear of God. What are some of the most important implications of this teaching? First of all, consider the folly of seeking to solve the problems of human conduct without considering the necessity of the fear of God. God has rooted ethics (human conduct) in religion (man’s relationship to God). Follow me closely. When you slay true religion, it is only a matter of time before any semblance of ethical integrity will die. Three or four generations ago God was thrown out of our national life, so far as true religion is concerned. In the place of true religion came humanism—the notion that man is god—and liberalism, which “remade” God in the image of man. Even so, there was still some remnant of the ethics of true religion. What has happened in the past twenty years is that even this has died. Now, people have no thought of God. They are concerned about the drug problem. It seems that everyone is concerned about the drug problem. Former drug addicts are invited in to talk to the high school students. Police officers also come in to try to scare the kids. But what happens? The kids turn them all off. They say they don’t want to hear any more. Why? Because people are attempting to attack an ethical problem without facing this principle that the fear of God is the only soil out of which godly living and stable ethics can grow. Paul said it this way in Romans 1:28: “And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind.”

The second thing to consider is the relationship between true revival and the ethical and social changes which always follow. A revival is an extensive and powerful movement of the Spirit of God, implanting true religion—the fear of God—in the hearts of many people in a given geographical area. And what happens whenever God works in such a way? What happens in a community of 10,000 people if suddenly 1,000 of those people begin to walk in the fear of God? The conduct of those people is no longer governed by the eye of the policeman but by the eye of God. The students in the schools conduct themselves not with reference to the teacher’s eye but to the eye of God. The community becomes a little Eden. Why? Because the fear of God implanted in the hearts of a number of people begins to be the soil out of which grows ethical uprightness. People begin to be kind to one another and thoughtful of one another. Every revival in history has always been the womb out of which great social changes have come.

The third application is that parents must consider the basis upon which we should evaluate our influence with our children. There are three great strands of influence upon our children. The first and essential one is the home; the second is the school; and the third is the church. Did I get the order mixed up? No. You have them under your roof for the greatest number of hours and therefore have the most powerful influence. The school has them the next greatest number of hours, and the church has them the fewest.

Do you want to evaluate whether your influence as a parent is an influence owned of God and is being used as an instrument in the hands of God? Here is how you evaluate it: to what extent are your children learning the fear of God by your example and by your precepts? Do your children see that, in all of your conduct, the most forceful and powerful influence upon you is the eye of God? Or do they see you living two or three different kinds of lives—one in church, one with a certain class of friends, one with another circle of friends? By your example and by your precepts, are you teaching your children the fear of God? If not, don’t be surprised if someday your daughter has run off and gotten pregnant or your son has gotten hooked on dope. Don’t be surprised if you have not provided a home in which the fear of God is taught. That alone will keep them.

Evaluate the influence of the school your children attend along this same line. If God says that the fear of God is the chief part of knowledge, then I think it is right to say that the absence of the fear of God is the chief part of folly. And if that is true, many children are under calculated folly day in and day out in their public school system. They are taught that life can be lived without reference to the fear of God. You may say, there is no teacher that ever says that. But by the very absence of any attempt to teach any standard of ethics and morality that includes the fear of God, they are saying the fear of God is not needed.

This is how you evaluate the influence of the church: Does my church teach my children the fear of God, or does it just keep them busy? Does it teach the true character of God? Does it seek by the grace of God to implant in young people the sense of His presence and the requirements of His holy law and the wonders of His grace? That is the measure by which to evaluate the church’s influence. And we must evaluate it not only with reference to the young people but with reference to ourselves. What do the hymns we sing teach us? What is the climate of worship created? Does it promote and seek to maintain the fear of God in people?

The fear of God is the soil out of which a godly life grows, and it is only in the soil of the fear of God that true godliness will ever be found. Are you a student who has developed the habit of cheating at school? Why do you do it? Why can you lie, as long as you are sure your mom and dad won’t find out? Why can you swear when you’re playing with your friends, but you wouldn’t dare do it around your parents? It is because the fear of God is not in your heart. That is your great need, that God would put His fear into your heart.

The children of God ought to examine themselves, too. Why is it that we cut corners at times? Isn’t it because we have moved out of the realm of the fear of God? That’s why God says we need to be in His fear all the day long. It is unthinkable, isn’t it, that you would cut corners on your income tax if you were living in the consciousness of the fear of God? “As I fill out this form, the eye of my God is upon me. Will He smile when I am done?” That’s when it becomes real. I urge you to cry to God that He would increase His fear in your heart, for only to the extent that His fear is increased, will godliness and practical holiness be worked out in fuller measures than you have known before.

Unholy Soil that Produces an Ungodly Life

If the fear of God is the soil out of which a godly life grows, then by the sheer pressure of logic it is right to say that the absence of the fear of God is the unholy soil out of which an ungodly life grows. However, we need not rely on sheer logic to prove this proposition; it can be demonstrated from Scripture. We will do this, first of all by considering a key text in some depth that will set the framework of our study. Secondly, we will look at several specific passages that support the conclusion of this main text. Then, we will draw out some practical conclusions and observations.

A Key Text: Romans 3:18

A key text to demonstrate this proposition that the absence of the fear of God is the unholy soil which produces an ungodly life is Romans 3:18: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” This quotation from the Old Testament wraps up a string of Scripture proofs given by Paul to establish the sinfulness of men before God. He says that the underlying cause for the ungodliness of the whole world is that, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The absence of the fear of God is the cause of a disordered, ungodly life, such as Paul describes in Romans 3:10-18. This absence is like a noxious plant in the heart of man.

The ungodly, as they view life, as they live life, as they carry out their desires and ambitions, do so devoid of the fear of God. When someone has just had his picture taken, and a camera with a flashbulb has been used, he will have a bright spot before his eyes for the next minute or two. Everything he looks at will appear to have that bright spot superimposed on it. He can’t look at his hand, at a tree, at a house, or at another person without seeing the spot. It is continually “before his eyes.” But the Scripture says of the wicked, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” That is, when they get up in the morning and contemplate the coming day, they look out upon life without having superimposed upon it the being of God, the claims of God, the character of God, the salvation of God, the law of God, the judgment of God. They go out into that day with no fear of God superimposed upon their life. That is Paul’s accusation. So, he tells us, when you see the life the ungodly live, this is the explanation behind it. This is the reason that the life of the ungodly is so depraved and sinful: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The godly man is the man who, in everything, has the “bright spot” of the fear of God before his eyes. He can’t think of the day before him without reflexively thinking, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I am His servant. He is my God. So as I go out into this day, into the shop, into the school, into the office; as I work or engage in conversation, everything must have stamped upon it the reality of God’s being, of my relationship to Him, of His claims upon me, of His provision for me.” The fear of God is before his eyes, and it colors every facet of his life. Conversely, the ungodly man is the man who does not have this fear of God before his eyes. He has no regard to God’s authority, no consideration of God’s law, no concern to have His smile, no dread of His frown.

We learn at the very outset, therefore, that moral and ethical problems, problems of life and of conduct, are rooted in religious principles. You cannot separate ethics, morality and conduct from true biblical religion. You cannot do it, for God has joined them. What God has joined together, man puts asunder only to his own peril. It is clear from Romans 3 that the absence of the fear of God is indeed the unholy soil out of which the ungodly life grows.

Supporting Texts

Psalm 10

Having looked at this key text as a point of reference, so to speak, let us consider two other supporting and explanatory texts in the Old Testament. First, Psalm 10. The context of this Psalm is set out very clearly in the first two verses: “Why standest thou afar off, O Jehovah? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? In the pride of the wicked the poor is hotly pursued.” Here are the righteous being oppressed and pursued by the wicked, and it seems like God doesn’t care. This is a great problem that surfaces again and again in the Psalms. It is a problem we experience as Christians. There are times when we say, “God, this doesn’t seem right.” What would you think of me as a father if I could see my son kicked around and abused by a bully, and I had the power to do something, but I didn’t? Wouldn’t you have some questions about the depth of my love to my child? Of course you would. God’s people also have this problem.

In that context the psalmist demonstrates what happens in the mind of the wicked when he observes this. He picks on the righteous, but no thunderbolts break out of heaven, and no lightning strikes. So he is made bold to go on in his wickedness. Notice, first, what the wicked man does:

His ways are firm at all times; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his adversaries, he puffeth at them. He saith in his heart, I shall not be moved; to all generations I shall not be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression: under his tongue is mischief and iniquity. He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages; in the secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the helpless. He lurketh in secret as a lion in his covert; he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him in his net. He croucheth, he boweth down, and the helpless fall by his strong ones (Psalm 10:5-10).

The wicked carries out all his schemes against the righteous, against the poor, against the helpless. But this section of the psalm is bounded by verses 4 and 11, both of which tell us why the wicked does what he does. Notice the reason for all of this in verse 4: “The wicked, in the pride of his countenance, saith, ‘He will not require it.’ All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’” In other words, the wicked man voids his mind of conscious thoughts of God. That doesn’t mean he is an outspoken atheist. But it means that God does not enter into the thoughts that govern his life. All his thoughts are that there is no God. He makes his plans; he carries out his ambitions. But he does so without any reference to God. Verse 11 shows that the same wicked man seeks to rid himself of any constraining awareness of the character of God: “He saith in his heart, ‘God hath forgotten; he hideth his face; he will never see it.’” He tries to limit God’s omniscience. Why does he push God out of his thoughts? And when he can’t fully succeed in that, why does he twist the God who remains in his thoughts? He does this because he cannot live an ungodly life unless he can take himself out of the orbit of the fear of God. So if he is to grow his plants of ungodly living, he must condition the soil until it is devoid of the fear of God.

Malachi 3

There is one other Old Testament passage for us to look at. It is Malachi 3. The chapter begins with the announcement of the one called the messenger of the covenant, a reference of course to our Lord Jesus Christ himself. When he comes, the prophet says he will have a twofold ministry. First, a ministry of purification:

But who can abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver (verses 2-3).

Second, the messenger of the covenant will have a ministry of judgment:

“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me,” saith Jehovah of hosts (verse 5).

The messenger will come not only to purify but also to judge. Notice who is going to be judged: the sorcerers; the adulterers; the false swearers; those that have oppressed the hireling in his wages; and those “that turn aside the sojourner from his right.” In other words, the Lord says His judgment will come against all those found anywhere along the whole spectrum of evil, from those who are guilty of open, gross immorality to those who are indifferent to the needs of the sojourner. Then He points out that they have one thing in common, and it is this: they “fear not me.” What does the adulterer have in common with the person who is indifferent to a legitimate need in another that he sees and to which he has the ability to respond? They have in common that they do not walk in the fear of God. So the prophet Malachi tells us that God’s judgment will come forth with fury and with vengeance upon all who do not fear Him.

Religious Hypocrites

These passages deal primarily with those who are openly irreligious in their wickedness, but there is another great class of persons who have no fear of God. It is those who are very religious outwardly, but who are guilty of religious hypocrisy; they maintain the outward profession of true religion and perform many of the activities of true religion, but they are devoid of the power of true religion. Of course the classic example of such a class of people are the scribes and the Pharisees.

In Matthew 6 our Lord called the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites and warned us not to be like them. For, He said, when they pray, they pray to be seen of men (verse 5); when they give, they give to be seen of men (verse 2); and when they fast, they fast to be seen of men (verse 16). That is, in all their effort to maintain the form of orthodox religion, and in all their religious activities, they are devoid of the fear of God. For what is the essence of the fear of God? It is that regard of His person which makes His smile my greatest delight and His frown my greatest dread. It is that which makes me a man or woman who desires nothing beyond my own conscience for a theater and God and the holy angels for witnesses. To that, the scribes and Pharisees were strangers.

Professing Christian, where is your heart? Men can see you go through the motions of devotion to God and obedience to His commands. But the question is, what does God see? Does He see that your outward conformity to His law is an expression of the fear of God in your heart? Does He see that you worship Him out of love to Him and out of a desire to please Him, constrained by the awareness of your obligation to Him? Or has it simply become part of your life pattern, in which you remain so that you “may be seen of men”?

Why do you do what you do? Why don’t you do some of the things other people do? Is it simply to keep up the form and semblance of true religion before the eyes of men? Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “Ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:28). The person who maintains orthodox religion in the head, and the form of it in the life, but who is a stranger to the fear of God in the heart, knows nothing of the inwardness of true, biblical Christianity. He knows nothing of poverty of spirit; he knows nothing of hungering and thirsting after righteousness; he knows nothing of mourning over his sins in secret. The sum and substance of his whole religious experience is what is packed into his head and what he performs outwardly in his life; but of the goings forth of a heart after God, he knows nothing.

Impact on Society

There is a way that this applies to our whole culture at this point in history. Suppose I wanted to destroy a house. There are two main ways I could go about it. I could arm myself with the necessary tools and, beginning on the roof, start tearing the house down piece by piece—shingle by shingle, brick by brick, door by door. But there is another way I could do it. I could take my sledge and start working on the foundation. After an hour’s time a passerby might not be able to see what I was trying to do. The house would still look completely intact. All I may have been able to accomplish is to displace a few concrete blocks or put a hole in the poured foundation. At the end of the day the house might still be standing if I am taking the second approach to destroying it, whereas someone up on the roof could have made quite a mess. He could have some of the sheeting on the roof torn off. He might have some of the windows knocked out. But if I stick with it, by the end of a full day or two, I would be a lot farther ahead than he would be. If I could undercut the strategic points of stress where the foundation bore the weight of that whole structure, I could bring the whole thing down upon itself, whereas at the end of a couple of days, just working piece by piece, the other fellow might have eighty percent of the structure still standing.

The devil hates the structure of biblical ethics and morality wherever he sees that structure raised. There are two ways he can go about to destroy it. He can start attacking every shingle of Christian virtue and say, “There is no such thing as purity, and I’m out to destroy the concept of purity. There is no such thing as honesty, and I’m going to start tearing away at the shingles of honesty.” But the devil is smarter than that. He says, “Go ahead and keep your shingles for a while. Let everybody walk by and see them still intact. What I’m going to do is to go around back where you can’t see me, and I am going to start dislodging foundation stones.”

So what has happened in our own western culture? What has happened in America? For several generations the devil has been out back, working at the foundations. One of his great hammer blows was that of religious liberalism, which distorted the God of the Bible and turned Him from the glorious, fearful God of Israel into a formless mass of unprincipled sentiment called love. His holiness, His justice and His righteous anger are largely forgotten. Then there was the hammer blow of humanism that came through our American educational system. It says that man is not a depraved and bad creature. And there was the hammer blow of evolutionary thought: man is not obligated to God because he never came from God in the first place.

All of these influences have been at work, and now it seems that the house that looked beautiful yesterday is in shambles today. Everybody says, “Look, the house is falling down on us!” Why? It is because the fear of God has essentially vanished from the fabric of our national life and experience. And the only way there is going to be any widespread return to any kind of true ethics and morality is to start from the beginning by implanting the fear of God in the hearts of men. That is where it must begin.

That means we must go back to telling men who God is. When they begin to see who He is, they will begin to see what their obligations to Him are; and they will begin to see how terrible it is to sin against and to offend such a holy God, until they are driven to despair. Then, when they are told that this holy God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, they will see forgiveness from the perspective of the psalmist: “There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared” (Psalm 130:4). The gospel will no longer be simply a cheap elixir which puts them at ease with their own sinful conduct but does nothing to promote the fear of God. It will be the instrument by which, through the blessings of the New Covenant applied with power to the heart, they will be brought to fear and to reverence this God and to walk strictly in His precepts and commandments.

Testimony of the Unbelieving

The absence of the fear of God explains not only the spiritual condition of our nation but also the behavior of every individual who does not believe in God. Why does the unbeliever live the way he lives? Why does the unbelieving young person get up in the morning, eat, go off to school, lie a little bit, cheat a little bit, fight with his brother and sister, hide the truth from his parents? Here is the explanation. There is no fear of God before his eyes. That is the explanation of his life. It is the explanation of the lives of unbelieving adults as well. It is why they can live the way they do. That is why even someone who professes to be a follower of Christ can go home from church on a Lord’s day afternoon and turn on his TV set without even thinking that it is God’s day and that “He calls the hours His own.” In fact, it may not enter his mind at all. Why? Because there is no fear of God before his eyes. He thinks that how he spends the Lord’s Day is his business, not God’s. He won’t stand to have God interfere with what he wants to do on a Sunday afternoon. That is his attitude. Why? Because there is no fear of God before his eyes.

If that is a description of your life and your philosophy, dear reader, then here is the explanation of why you live that way. There is no fear of God before your eyes. You need to recognize that until you come to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant and have Him implant this fear within your heart, this will continue to be your life’s pattern.

If this principle is true, that the only soil out of which ungodliness can grow is that of the absence of the fear of God, may God help us to resist with holy violence anything that would lessen the fear of God in our hearts. For we can only move into the realm of sin deliberately when we have moved out of the realm of the fear of God. We must somehow either put God out of our thoughts or, if we can’t do that, fashion a god with whom we can be more comfortable in our sin. Beware of any influence, therefore, no matter how innocent it may appear, if it lessens your regard of God’s smile and your dread of His frown. May God help us to keep ourselves in His fear all the day long. That is the whole pattern of grace: though God puts His fear in our hearts, He commands us to be in His fear all the day long. May the Lord be pleased to help us to heed the word of exhortation and to dread this unholy soil of the absence of the fear of God.

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