Join Rick Hughes as he explores the profound concept of fearing God—a theme deeply rooted in scripture. Through an engaging narrative, discover the importance of reverence, obedience, and wisdom, drawing lessons from the lessons of the Exodus generation. Reflect on how these timeless principles can guide our lives today and see why they remain vital for spiritual growth.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline Radio Show. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stay with me. It won’t be long. 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, a whole lot of education, and absolutely no manipulation because we don’t con you. We’re not trying to raise money. We’re not trying to sell you a book. We’re not trying to do anything like that. We just want to give you something. We want to give you some information. Hopefully, it’ll help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. If it does, then you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. But that’s what this radio show is about, and that’s what this ministry is about, teaching the Word of God. I’ve been in the ministry now well over 50 years. I started the first time I ever spoke in the pulpit. and talked about God was 1968. And since that time, I’ve traveled thousands of miles, been in hundreds of schools, many, many churches, and now we’re working on over 1,000 radio shows to 136 cities across America. It’s amazing that God’s given me the privilege to do this when I’m such a jerk. But it just shows if God can use me, he can use you, I promise you. So I hope if you’ve got any questions about what we do, you can go to our website, rickhughesministries.com, RickHughesMinistries.org There you can see our books. You can see everything we’ve written. You can listen to some of the radio shows. A ton of information there and how to order material from us all free, free, free of charge because we don’t charge for anything. If God’s in it, He pays for it. It’s just that simple. I want to start off today talking about something I heard somebody say the other day, and I think it’s worth talking about. I was watching a documentary on television. It was about some hillbillies up in Appalachian Mountains, and one of the older guys said something that struck a chord with me. He said this to the interviewer. He said, concerning what was wrong with America today, he said, no one fears God anymore. They don’t fear God. And he especially talked about teenagers don’t fear God. So I’m going to ask you that question. Do you fear God? Do you fear God? That’s a legitimate question. Let’s talk about it this morning and go into some verses and see what the Bible says about this. We’ll start off with Deuteronomy 10, 12. Old Testament verse, the second book of the law that Moses, the second history book that Moses wrote before he passed away. He said, and now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of you? Here it comes, get ready. But to fear the Lord thy God. There it is right there. And secondly, to walk in all his ways, Thirdly, to love him. And fourth, to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. So we see it right there. What does God expect out of you? Fear the Lord thy God. The Hebrew word for fear is yare, pronounced Y-A-W-R-A-Y, yare. What does it mean? It means to stand in awe, to honor, to respect. It’s not an emotional fear, it’s a reverential fear. So this passage asks, what does God require of his people? And Moses, you’ve got to remember who he was telling this to. He was giving this mandate to the Exodus generation after showing how their independence and their pride was destroying their future hope for freedom. This mandate emphasized reverence, obedience, love, and service. Four things. Reverence, obedience, love, and service. So fearing God is simply respect of his purity and power so that you and I are hesitant to disobey him. Let’s remember that these Jews had fallen into, had failed to enter the Promised Land. They had been brought up to the Promised Land and they sent in 12 spies, 10 came back, said, no way, we can’t do it. But two said, yes, we can. So those 10 spies gave a dismal report of victory, but only Joshua and Caleb had the faith to believe God would give them the victory. By the way, the spiritual life in the Old Testament is lived by the faith rest. They didn’t have the filling of the Holy Spirit like we do. They didn’t have a Bible like we do. So faith rest was their maximum spiritual life. And they believed God. They trusted God. They had faith in God. The arrogant generation that escaped Egyptian bondage didn’t want to believe them. They actually wanted to go back to Egypt. You can’t believe what they just did here in this passage. This arrogant generation that escaped the bondage of Egypt actually accused God of plotting their death. Listen to Deuteronomy 1.26. But you were unwilling to go up, said Moses. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, said Moses. You grumbled in your tents. We can tell you what that word means. It means to whine and complain. And you said, quote, the Lord hates us, so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Ha, ha, ha. Why would God do that? He freed them from Egypt. He brought them out and headed for the promised land. They just didn’t have the courage to trust him at that time. So blaming God for their fear, they had no respect for God, no reverence for God, and no reverence for his command. They didn’t fear the Lord their God. They should have. I’ll show you what happened to them. Moses tried to encourage them. He tried to get them to do it. In spite of their emotional fear, this is what Moses said to them in Deuteronomy 1, 29 and 30. Then I said to you, don’t be terrified. Do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God who is going before you will fight for you as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes. So quit looking at them and quit being afraid of them. One of the things they used was about their children. They said, oh, our children will be killed. Our children, oh, the poor children. They were afraid to trust God. They didn’t fear God. God’s judgment was pronounced on this unbelieving generation. The ones who feared the inhabitants of the land more than they feared the God who delivered them out of bondage in Egypt. So in Deuteronomy 1, 34 through 35, the Lord heard what you said, Moses said, and he was angry and solemnly swore, no one from this evil generation will ever see the good land I swore to give your ancestors. So that sealed their doom right there. That rebellion cost them 40 more years of wandering in the wilderness until every one of those unbelievers had died off and their children, eventually now 40 years old, went into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua beginning with the battle of Jericho. So Proverbs 1.7 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but a fool despises wisdom and instruction. And I might add, he doesn’t fear God. We saw earlier that to fear the Lord means to reverence him, to obey him, to love him. But let me ask you this question. Should you be afraid of God? Should you be afraid of God? If we understand that God is immutable, which means he does not change, then the God of the Old Testament is still, in fact, the God of the New Testament. And I promise you, he still expects you to trust him and to obey him. In fact, claim to love him if you do. If you say you love him, then that verse in Deuteronomy 10, 12, fear the Lord thy God, walk in all his ways, love him and serve him. That’s practical for you to do today. Because our point of contact with God today is through his justice and his righteousness. Remember that. God is absolutely righteous and he’s absolutely just. And what the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God will always judge. Never, ever forget that God the Father judged his only begotten Son Why? On our behalf. So that the righteousness of Jesus Christ could be transferred to us and the righteousness of God would be satisfied. But if you try to come to God based on your own righteousness, you will be sadly mistaken since you have absolutely no righteousness whatsoever, none. You say, well, wait a minute, I’m a good person. I don’t smoke and drink or chew or say bad words and run around people that do. Just remember the Bible says that All of our righteousnesses are like a filthy rag in God’s eyes. Fearing God does not mean you should be afraid of God, no. But there’s no doubt you should be in awe of God, absolutely 100%. So fear is used in two ways in the Bible. Fear is used for reverence and respect and awe of God the Father. And it is a reverence manifesting itself in, of all things, obedience. Obedience. But fear can also be an emotional overload on your senses. Like people have a fear of heights or fear of spiders. My own mother, before she passed away, had a terrible fear of tornadoes. And she would just freak out every time the word came there might be a tornado. What are you afraid of? I’m afraid of heights, personally. I don’t like to get up on a tall building and look out over the edge. You’d have to tie a rope to me to get me to lean over the edge and look at it. Are you afraid of spiders? Are you afraid of snakes? What are you afraid of? Because it’s an emotional overload. Fear can do that. But one of the greatest restraints on sin is fear of the righteousness and justice of God. I want to say that again. Don’t miss it. One of the greatest restraints on sin is a fear of the righteousness and justice of God. By that I mean when you openly commit sin and disobedience to God, do you stop and consider that that rebellion you just did will be met with discipline? And that discipline is actually God loving you, forcing you to be obedient because if you keep being disobedient, you’re gonna self-destruct. You understand that? Do you ever stop to think about that when you commit a sin and disobedience, that it’s going to be met with discipline? In Leviticus 25, 17, here’s something interesting. Fear will prevent wrongdoing towards other people. Did you know that? Fear of God will prevent you from doing wrong things to other people. Listen to Leviticus 25, 17. So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God. There it is. For I am the Lord your God. So before you start wanting to wrong someone, steal from them, run them down, malign them, criticize them, or hurt them, you better fear God first because God is the judge. God didn’t appoint you to be anybody’s judge. He’s perfectly capable of handling his children. Keep your nose out of their business. So instead of reacting to the wrongdoing of other people, you just have to put the entire matter in the hands of God and respect what God said. Don’t try to avenge yourself ever. Don’t ever, ever try to avenge yourself. Let God handle it. Psalm 111, verse 10. The fear of the Lord, there it is again. What about it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To respect God, to reverence God, to have all concerning God is the beginning of wisdom. Well, what is wisdom? Well, it’s insight and understanding, which leads to discretion in your soul. In Proverbs 2.6, for the Lord gives wisdom, out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. And it all starts with you reverencing, respecting, being in awe of God. Many individuals in our nation, it’s true, no longer fear God. This means they don’t respect God. They have no appreciation for God. They don’t respect Him. Nor do they love Him. As a matter of fact, they flaunt their alternative lifestyles contrary to the Bible’s teaching. And they find like-mindedness in other people who think as they do. Every now and then you’ll see something on the Internet about someone taking a survey about do you fear God, and they’ll laugh and say, no, I don’t believe that. They openly rebel against God. They openly tell people they don’t like God, especially the generation that is the permissive generation that’s trying to change the way America looks at things. They have no fear of God whatsoever because they justify what they do as being right, and they say, God’s wrong, I’m right. That’s bad when you do that. When you convince yourself that you’re right and God’s wrong, you’re in trouble, I promise you. And yet that’s what they’re doing. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do they still fear God in our country? Is there still a respect for God in our country? Is there still awe for God in our country? I think our current administration does fear God. I think our current administration does awe God and awe of God. But a good many people in this nation do not fear God anymore, nor do they respect God, nor do they love him. One great soldier that I knew before God called him home to heaven once told me that he had never seen an atheist jump out of an airplane. If you’re 1,500 feet up off the ground about to exit the airplane, there’s one thing you’re going to do is ask God to not let you get killed. When faced with death, many people turn to God, the very God they disrespected, the very God they didn’t love. Now they say, oh, God, please help me, because they know that he holds the keys to life and death. Does the Bible actually say that Christ holds the keys to life and death? Yep. In Revelation 1, 17 through 18, this is what John wrote. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. That’s looking at the glory of Jesus Christ. He just passed out. And he laid his right hand on me, and he said unto me, fear not. I am the first and the last. In other words, you don’t have to be afraid of me. It’s not the kind of fear. You respect me. You reverence me, but don’t be afraid of me. He said, I am the one that liveth and was dead as a resurrection. And behold, I’m alive forevermore. Amen. And then listen, here it is. And I have the keys of hell and of death. Remember this in response to emotional fear. Here’s a little saying that someone told me one time. I think my good friend Pete Daugherty in Albany, Georgia, sat home and told me this, and I never forgot it. Fear knocked, faith answered, and said nobody’s home. Fear knocked, faith answered, and said nobody’s home. So remember that. There’s no reason for you to be afraid of God. No reason whatsoever. But everything says you should fear God, respect him, reverence him. Because why should you not be afraid of him? Because he’s so gracious. Listen to Psalm 86, verse 5. For you, Lord, are good. You are ready to forgive and plentiful in mercy unto all of them that call upon thee. The Lord’s not gonna abandon you. He sent his son to die for you, to pay the penalty for your sin, for my sin. He’s very gracious. There’s no need for you to be afraid of him. He is good and ready to forgive and plentiful in mercy to those that call upon him. That’s your volition acting. If you decide in your volition that you want to receive Christ as your Savior, I don’t care what you’ve done in the past, it’ll work. All you have to do is go to the Father and say, Father, I believe in Jesus Christ, your anointed son. I’m willing to place my life in his hands. I accept him as my savior. And a simple prayer like that can change your destiny forever. Only the arrogant fool would reject the love and forgiveness of God. You hear that? Only an arrogant fool would reject the love and forgiveness of God. In Proverbs 28, 26, he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whosoever walketh wisely, he’ll be delivered. So the arrogant fool thinks he’s smarter than God. The arrogant fool does not fear God, does not respect God, does not reverence God, is not in awe of God. He’s in awe of his own thinking, of his own self, and he thinks he knows what’s best. And he trusts in his own heart. It’s true when certain individuals see God administer swift justice, they become afraid and they fear God. Yes. I’ll say it again. It’s true that when certain individuals see God administer swift justice, they become afraid and fear God. Notice Acts 5, 1 through 11. That’s the story about how Ananias and his wife Sapphira both dropped dead in front of witnesses. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, exposed their lies, leading to both individuals immediately dropping dead. Boom, right there. And it brought great fear upon the early church. Read it for yourself, Acts 5, 1-11. Joseph feared God and would not give in to the demands of his master’s perverted wife who wanted to have sex with him. In Genesis 39.9, he said these words, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Then in Genesis 42.18, I fear God. That’s what he told his ten older brothers. I fear God. In Proverbs 8.13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil, the Bible says in Proverbs 6, 16. So two verses there. Proverbs 8, 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And Proverbs 16, 6. By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. If you fear God, if you respect God, if you reverence God, and he tells you to don’t do something, hopefully you will obey him. hopefully in awe of God. He loves you. He’s your protector. He watches over you. He provides for you. But when you neglect him, when you reject what he tells you to do, then you’re setting yourself up for discipline. In Psalm 25, 14, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. You hear it? The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. That’s an interesting verse. The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. The question to be asked is, does God respect you enough to share his secrets with you? That’s a good question. Does God respect you enough to share his secrets with you? Well, actually, God has no secrets. His plan is completely disclosed in the scriptures. But one could ask, does God trust you enough to have confidence in you Does he? Does he have confidence in you? Do you reverence him and respect him to such a degree that you do not want to fail him? Do you reverence him and respect him to such a degree that you don’t want to fail him? The fear of any servant of God is that by our flaws and our failures, Satan would be able to impugn God’s character. And this is exactly what Satan tried to do with Job. And this is the fear of any communicator, myself included, any pastor that I know of, that we would misrepresent God or that we would let our flaws and our failures and our lust patterns be exposed so that Satan can infuse God’s character. And he can say, look, look what your man did. Your man saved going to heaven. You say, look what he just did. Why are you sending me to the lake of fire? Because I’m better than that. And, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is our defense attorney. He stands up and says, he’s my child. I forgave him. So let’s get back to my original question. Do you fear God? Do you fear God? And I’m not talking about being afraid of him. I’m talking about having reverence to him, reverence of God, due to his holy essence, especially his justice and his righteousness. Do you fear God? Do you have reverence to God? Are you reverent when you talk about God? Do you know that he’s holy in his essence of sovereignty, righteousness, justice, and love, and immutability, and omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, et cetera? Do you reverence God because of that? Especially his justice and his righteousness. Because what the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God will judge every time. Your relationship with God and my relationship with God is based on reverence. A-W-E, awe. Not on fearfulness. If we could actually see his holiness, we might naturally be afraid due to his immense power and glory. But thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied God’s justice. And through faith in Christ, we are welcomed into the royal family of our loving Father. So true wisdom, the wisdom of the essence of God, brings reverence and something else. True wisdom of the essence of God brings reverence and worship. Why? Because it’s based on our love for God and our love for what he’s done on our behalf. Our occupation with Christ, problem-solving device number 10, will help guide us away from our flaws and destructive patterns that lead us to self-destruction. So security and contentment are the results of reverencing and respecting God. Security and contentment are the results of reverencing and respecting God. Listen to Malachi 3.16 as we wrap up today. Those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and he heard it. And a scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. There’s an amazing thing. God is listening to everything you say. He sees everything that you do. And in this particular case, those who fear and respect the Lord communicate that reverence with one another. with other like-minded believers. And two, the Lord hears when you speak about him, concerning him. He hears it. And three, a record was recorded in heaven regarding those who reverenced his name. And four, do not ever, ever, ever use God’s name in vain, especially as an expletive. Don’t do that. And number five, God is not a good luck charm helping you win your next event if you’re a competitive angler or competitive athlete. If God will help me, I just want to win this and I’ll give him 10% of what I earn. No, you won’t. God’s not a genie in an eight ball. That’s not respecting God. You need to thank him for giving you the opportunity to bring him glory and honor by your performance. So those who fear and respect the Lord communicate their reverence with other people. Again, Malachi 3.16, those who feared the Lord talked with each other. And the Lord heard it and wrote it down. It was written in his presence concerning those that feared him and honored his name. Yep. I hope your name is honored in heaven. I hope when you walk in the doors of heaven, wherever it’s going to be, whenever you get there, you will hear the Lord say, well done, my good and faithful servant. That’s what we want to hear. We don’t want to show up in heaven and the Lord tells us, have a seat, we’ll get to you in a thousand years. No. We want to get a standing ovation. We want to hear that, well done, my good and my faithful servant. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re learning. So this was Do You Fear God? And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Okay? All right. Good deal. We’ll hopefully be back next Sunday. Same time, same place, same location. I hope you’ll pray for us as we prepare for the next message. Pray for us as we go through this week. And I hope to be here next Sunday. Same time, same place. Go to the website if you have any questions, rickhughesministries.org. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
