Real Reverence

 

 

We focused attention last week on the final verses of chapter one of James’ epistle. Specifically: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

 

If you were here, you will remember we looked at three points James makes in these two verses: Guard our tongues, help those who are in need, and keep ourselves unstained by the world. We saw that the deeper our reverence for God, the purer our lives will become because we will strive to please Him and keep our souls unstained by sin.

 

We also saw that we demonstrate reverence for God, and keep ourselves unstained by the world, when we make it our goal to never take Him causally – such as when even Christians use OMG – “Oh, My God” – as if the phrase has no more significance than the word, ‘wow.’

 

Christians might not mean to be casual with God, but by misusing His majestic Name, they are in truth acting irreverently. And make no mistake; That seemingly minor transgression will, if unchecked, lead to further and greater sin.

 

I need to repeat that for emphasis: That seemingly minor transgression will, if unchecked, lead to further and greater sin.

 

Because we ran out of time last week, I want to return to yet another spiritual outcome inherent in reverencing God: We gain a deeper and more robust trust and confidence in Him – even if and even WHEN circumstances are arduous and even fearful. It is to that point about reverencing God that I want to begin today’s message.

 

When theologians speak of “reverencing God,” they mean something considerably deeper than simply being afraid of God. The biblical idea combines awe, honor, a desire to live in a way that pleases Him, and trust.

 

As we saw last week, we demonstrate reverence God when we live in profound and humble awe of His holiness and His inexpressible greatness. How can we not be in awe when we contemplate who our God is? The heavens declare His unmatched glory and the skies His majesty. Those who can look to the skies, and the roaring seas, and the majestic mountain ranges – indeed, those who can study a high school textbook on human anatomy and biology and still refuse to fall on their knees in utter reverential awe before God make themselves worthy of God’s judgement.

 

The psalmist said it long ago and it continues to prove true: “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” (Psalm 14:1). The Lord Jesus said: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. John 3:19-20:

 

And so, Paul writes, “They are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20).

 

In the next few minutes I want to return to where I left off last time in our examination of reverence and focus on the impact reverence has on our ability to confidently trust in God’s unalterable authority and sovereignty over every circumstance in our lives – the good, the bad, the frightening, the joyful – or whatever.

 

As Solomon wrote: “In the fear [reverential fear] of the LORD is strong confidence.” Proverbs 14:26a:  And the psalmist: “In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man to do me?”  Psalm 56:11

 

In other words, an increasing reverence toward God leads to a deepening knowledge of His character which, in turn, leads quite naturally to a deepening trust in Him. It turns us from self-confidence to a ‘God-confidence.’ And as our ‘God-confidence’ matures, the easier it becomes for us to conclude that when something happens to us that we do not understand – or like – that we do not have to understand it to trust Him. The more we reverence God the less we fear people or circumstances.

 

Let me say that again for emphasis: The greater our reverence for God the less we fear people or circumstances.

 

“If God is for us,” the apostle Paul wrote, “who is against us? . . .  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:31,37)

 

I’ve read the book of Acts many times, but most recently the stories of Peter awaiting execution, and Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail caught my attention. Luke tells us at the beginning of chapter 12 that Herod “had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.”

 

Peter knew he was to be executed in the morning. But what was he doing the night before? He was sleeping while chained between two Roman guards. And why was he sleeping? I’ll come back to that question in a moment.

 

Then there was Paul and Silas in Philippi. Luke tells us they caused an angry stir preaching the gospel. It wasn’t long before: “The chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.” Acts 16:22b-24

 

It was a filthy place. A demoralizing place. But what were the two doing? “They were praying and singing hymns of praise to God” (verse 25). Why?

 

I think the answer to the questions why could Peter be sleeping between the Roman soldiers and Paul and Silas were singing praises to God in that jail – I think the answer lies in their reverence for God, a reverence which resulted in their deep and profound trust of God and His absolute sovereignty in their circumstances. A trust that allowed them to rest peacefully, or to sing joyously. A trust that convinced them that nothing could happen to them – whether an execution or an imprisonment – nothing could happen to them that their sovereign and loving Father did not ordain for them for whatever reasons He had.

 

Let’s pause a moment. We need to be very careful to not allow ourselves to excuse ourselves from that kind of trust by thinking, “Well, sure. They were saints. They were apostles. No wonder they could do what they did in their ominous circumstances.”

 

We must be careful to not allow that thought to ROB us of what God also wants for you and for me – that being to realize that WE TOO can have their kind of reverence-driven trust in God.

 

Yes, Peter, Paul, and Silas were ‘saints’ as we call them. But they were not ‘stained-glass’ saints with halos above their heads. At their core they were just as prone to sins, to doubts and fears as any of us in this chapel. Scripture tells us Peter played the hypocrite in his relationship with the Gentiles because he feared the criticism and social pressure of his Jewish peers. You’ll find that story in the second chapter of Galatians.

 

As for Paul, he became terribly angry with his missionary companion, Barnabas, because he wanted to take Mark along with them on their next missionary expedition and Paul absolutely refused. If you know the story from Acts 15, the two giants of Christian faith walked away from each other and went their separate ways – Barnabas with Mark and Paul with Silas.

 

By the way, and as an aside, if Barnabas had not been willing to take Mark under his proverbial wing, we might not even have the gospel written by Mark.

 

What’s my point? Despite our failures and sins, there is no Biblical basis why we cannot grow in our reverence for God – for His holiness, His awesomeness, His beauty, His power. And there is no Biblical basis for any of us to not have developed within us the same kind of confidence that developed in Peter and Paul and Silas – and in the numberless men and women of God through the ages.

 

But let’s pause again for another moment. Such reverence for God is not at all something anyone can ‘gin up’ on their own. Our carnal nature strains to get as far from God is it can. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8, our nature of sin “does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Romans 8:7) That’s why the Lord Jesus tells us, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” (John 6:44) And He said, “No one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”(Matthew 11:27) 

That’s why God sent us His Holy Spirit who will teach us, and bring to our remembrance all that the Lord has said to us. (See John 14:26)

 

Christians know that itself is a supernatural work of God. We were all spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, and dead people cannot do anything on their own. That’s why God Himself had to intervene to make us alive together with Christ. Again, here is the apostle Paul: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

 

God had to intervene to make us alive in Christ, and God must also intervene to GIVE us reverence for Himself and to GROW in our reverence for Him. Only by His intervention can we attain to the reverence that results in the kind of trust that Peter, Paul, and Silas had in God.

 

How badly do we want that kind of reverential confidence? How badly do we want such confidence in our heavenly Father that we can even sleep peacefully or sing joyously in hard places?

 

Scripture tells us: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). It is nothing short of foolish futility to think God will grow our reverence for Him when we choose to leave His book unopened and off to the side. You know the children’s song: Read your Bible, pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow.”

 

So, Christian, just as we asked God to save us when He intervened to reveal to us our sins – and He saved us – even so we can ask God to grant us a deep and deepening reverence for Him – and He will do so.

 

Isn’t that the principle James put forth in the first verses of this chapter? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously . . . but let him ask in faith, without doubting.” (See James 1:5-6) Of course it’s the same principle. So, ask, seek, and knock – and it shall be given us.

 

Which now brings us to the next verses in this epistle which seamlessly integrates reverence for God and obedience to Him: “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? . . .. But, if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” (James 2:1-4, 9-10)

 

The context of this section is about prejudiced decisions based solely on outward appearances. And the text speaks clearly enough on its own; We commit sin – condemnable sin – when we judge someone by their appearance.

 

But the principle of James’ warning goes far beyond wealth or the lack of it. The principle applies to ANY decision we make based on someone’s appearance – as, for example, when a white person prejudges a black person, or a black person prejudges a white person based on their skin color. To do so is nothing less than sin. Period.

 

And let me be very clear, God solemnly warns bigots than they must repent and turn from that sin. There is absolutely no room in the heart of a Christian for racial bigotry. These are not only my words. That commandment is rooted in Scripture from one end of the Book to the other.

 

“Jesus loves the little children of the world – red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” And if they are not precious in OUR sight, we’d better ask God to forgive us and to change our hearts. We will not grow in reverence for God if we judge people by their skin color or their outward appearance.

 

Of course, human nature being what it is, racial bigotry is not the only sin or prejudice of which a Christian can be guilty. Ageism falls into the category of sinful prejudice. I’ve been guilty of it myself. I don’t think I’m still guilty of it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t still practice a form of ageism. We all are quite adept at hiding our sins from ourselves, and only the Holy Spirit can reveal our secret sins to our hearts.

 

Anyway, I’m ashamed to tell you how often in the past I’ve sat in a church whose pastor was 25 or 30 years younger than I, and I smugly told myself, “What can this young kid tell me about walking with God? He was probably in diapers when I was already in the navy.”

 

How arrogant I was to think that to myself. It took a long time before I realized that when a man of God faithfully and accurately preaches the word of God, it is not the young man who speaks to me, but it is the Spirit of God who speaks through the word of God. We all would do well to remember the apostle Paul’s encouragement to young Timothy who likely faced some ageism in his congregation in Ephesus: “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:12).

 

It is nothing short of self-delusion and heart-hardening to think the sin of prejudging someone based on their appearance doesn’t matter much to God.

 

Yeah, it does. James emphasizes that point when he warns in verse 10 of chapter two: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all [of them].”

 

Well, I need to bring this message to a close, so let me quickly review: First, we each should routinely ask God to change our hearts, that we will treat Him with ever increasing reverence, awe, obedience, and trust. And second, we ought to routinely ask God to keep us from the sin of prejudging someone based on their skin color or other outward appearance.

 

As Paul wrote to all with ears to hear and eyes to see: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. ⁹ The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9).

 

We will continue next week with our study in God’s word.