• Holy Fear = Awe of God = Tremble At His Presence & Tremble At His Word…

• Our Holy Fear grows proportionately to our comprehension of God’s greatness.

Jeremiah 12:3a ESV

But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you…

#1) GOD KNOWS YOU

He Knew You Before You Were Born

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Psalm 139:13-14 ESV

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

He Knows Your Thoughts & Intentions

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Psalm 139:1-2 ESV

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

Exodus 40:34-35 NLT

Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle. Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle.

Leviticus 10:1 NKJV

Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profanefire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.

profane = to treat something sacred with irreverence; to treat what is holy as common or ordinary.

Leviticus 10:2 NKJV

So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

• Familiarity is a relationship killer.

Leviticus 10:3 NKJV

And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.'” So Aaron held his peace.

• You can only come into His Presence with a heart and attitude of reverence.

#2) GOD SEES YOU

Proverbs 5:21 NLT

For the LORD sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes.

Proverbs 15:3 ESV

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

• We will diminish His greatness, even to the point of human limitations, the less we fear Him.

• When you don’t fear Him, you start believing lies that are deceptive.

Psalm 10:11 NLT

The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”

Isaiah 29:15 NLT

What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The LORD can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!”

Isaiah 29:13 NLT

And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

#3) GOD TESTS YOU

Exodus 20:20 NLT

“Don’t be afraid,” Moses answered them, “for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!”

Ananias & Sapphira

Acts 4:36-37 NLT

For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.

• Cyprus was an island of great wealth, with an abundance of precious stones, copper, iron mines, lumber. It was famous for its flowers, fruit, wine, and oil. If you owned land in Cyprus, you were most likely well off.

Acts 5:1 NLT

But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property.

Acts 5:2 NLT

He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.

Acts 5:3-6 NLT

Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.

Ezekiel 8:12 ESV

Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’”

• How often do we foolishly think we are able to hide our distant hearts from God?

Acts 5:9-10 NLT

And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

• The lack of holy fear blinds us to the wickedness in our own motives.

• All of us have three images of ourselves.
  • Perceived Image = how others see us
  • Projected Image = how we want others to see us
  • Actual Image = who we really are

• Only God knows who we truly are. We can’t hide from Him.

Psalm 139:23-24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Acts 4:32 NLT

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.

Acts 5:3 NLT

Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.

• Hypocrisy is a spiritual cancer to the body of Christ.

• We must understand that this is the beginning of the church. There’s revival and hypocrisy would have destroyed the movement which the Holy Spirit was working in the hearts of the believers.

CONCLUSION

• God knows you. Great thing if you fear Him. God sees you. Great thing if you fear Him. God tests you. Great thing if your fear Him.

What happened after they were buried?

Acts 5:11 NLT

Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.

Why haven’t people fallen over dead in modern times?

Acts 5:15-16 NLT

As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.

1 Samuel 3:14 NLT

So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings.”

• The greater God’s manifest glory, the greater and swifter the judgement of irreverence.

• It is so much better to have His Glory so sin can leave and we can encounter a clean heart. In His manifested Presence, sin must go away. This is why we need His Holy fear in our lives. We need His goodness.

If you have the spirit of the fear of the Lord in you… great news… He knows you, sees you, and tests you so you can stay away form sin. If you don’t have the the spirit of the fear of the Lord in you… there’s also great news for you… Repent and you can encounter His goodness.

1 John 1:9 NLT

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.