He who sincerely confesses and forsakes his sins will be afraid of sin for the future, having felt the smart of it.
I. What is the fear that men ought to maintain alway? It is a fear of God for Himself, and a fear of other things for God, or in reference to Him. We ought to entertain--
1. A filial and reverential fear of God. Slavish fear will never make a man happy. Slavish fear is mixed with hatred of God; filial fear with love to Him.
2. We must entertain a fear of jealousy over ourselves.
3. A fear of caution and circumspection. This makes a man walk warily.
II. Some things in relation to which we should entertain this holy fear.
1. With respect to himself. Happy is the man who keeps a jealous eye over himself. Be jealous over your principles, your hearts, your tongues, and your senses.
2. With respect to our lusts and corruptions. He is happy who can say he fears nothing so much as sin. Fear the sin of your nature; sins by which you have been formerly led astray. These forsaken lovers will again make suit to you, and will get in upon you, if you grow secure. Fear little sins. There is no sin really little, but many most dangerous ones that are little in man’s esteem.
3. With respect to our graces. Grace is a gift to be stirred up. It is in hazard of decay, though not of death. The way to keep the treasure is to fear.
4. With respect to our duties. The whole worship and service of God is called fear; so necessary is our fear in approaching Him.
5. With respect to our attainments. They are in hazard of being lost.
III. The necessary qualification of this duty. “Alway.” This fear must be our habitual and constant work. This fear should season all we do, and be with us at all times, cases, conditions, places, and companies. Because--
1. We have always the enemy within our walls. While a body of sin remains within us, temptations will always be presenting themselves.
2. Because there are snares for us in all places and in all circumstances. There are snares in our lawful enjoyments; snares at home, in the field, waking, and at table. Many ditches are in our way, and many of these are so concealed that we may fall completely into them before we are aware. At all times we are beset.
IV. The advantage attending this duty. “Happy.” For--
1. This prevents much sin, and advanceth holiness of heart and life. He that fears to offend God is most likely to keep His way.
2. It prevents strokes from the Lord’s hand. Where sin dines judgment will sup. Holy fear prevents falls.
3. This fear carries the soul out of itself to the Lord Jesus Christ, thefountain of light, life, and strength. Improvement:
(1) You who are in a joyful frame, join trembling with your mirth.
(2) You that are in a mourning frame, fear alway.
(3) You that have not met with Christ; what shall I say to you?
Fear lest your sharing in Christian privileges leave your affections more deadened, and your consciences more seared. To all of you I say, “Fear alway.” (T. Boston, D.D.)
A holy fear
What is this Bible-enjoined fearing? It is not the paralysis of terror, the shrinking and subsiding into nothingness of the craven spirit within. It is the ballast of the soul. Calm cautiousness. It is our Scotch maxim, “Ca’ canny!” Retrospective, introspective, perspective, circumspective. Nervousness of experience, caution, cannyness of reflection, the fearing here embodies.
I. The action. “Feareth.” It is evangelical fear, for only the gospel can bring it. It is three-faced. The first outlook of it is towards God. The fear of God is not that turbulent tornado of terror that tears up and destroys; it is the gentle fall of the summer rain on the thirsty soil; it is the soft dew-descent of the Holy Ghost; it is the fear of God for himself. It is the holy hush in His almighty presence, the calm instinct of regeneration that gives sympathetic dignity to the soul. It is the “strength of the Lord.” Another outlook of this fear is towards yourself. Your worst enemy is your next-door neighbour, and on his gate is your own name. He is yourself. To draw illustration from mining, your heart is full of inflammable gas. Sin fills every chink, and it is all ready for the tempting flame. Another outlook of this fear is towards your surroundings. Look up, look in, but also look round. The world is an intertwined network of devildom. Take care, beware!
II. The time for this action. The longest day has a nightfall. In this activity of the soul no swinging bell heralds a release; without a break or gap the night-shift succeeds to day, and the day-shift to night, and the same worker is in both. “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” At all times, in all circumstances, in all companies, you are in danger of going to the bottom. Alway fearing is alway safe.
III. The consequence of it. “Happy is the man.” Because for time and eternity he is ready. It is never waste of wind or time to keep to the path, even though it wind and wind like an eternal corkscrew. He is happy because this fear saves him from the fear of man. That fear ever bringeth a snare. The Christian filled with the gospel fear of God is happy, too, because it empties the soul. You and I are unblessed to-day because we are too full.(John Robertson.)
The happy influence of fear
He is not an unhappy man whose heart is continually governed by this fear. It has a happy influence upon his soul, to guard it from the temptations of Satan and the world, and to keep it close to the Redeemer. It tends not to obstruct but to promote the exercise of faith and hope and joy in the Lord. Thus fear is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and a blessed means of establishing the heart in the love of God. It is a happy sign of an interest in the everlasting covenant of mercy, and in that special favour of God which is the source of all our joys. But wretched is the man who is not afraid to sin against his Maker and Judge. His heart is hard as the nether millstone. (George Lawson, D.D.)
Holy fear
Holy fear is a searching the camp that there be no enemy within our bosom to betray us, and seeing that all be fast and sure. For I see many leaky vessels fair before the wind, and professors who take their conversion upon trust, and they go on securely, and see not the under water till a storm sink them. (H. G. Salter.)
But he that hardeneth his heart shall fan into mischief.
Hardening the heart
The whole system of moral and religious duty is expressed as the “fear of God.” The religion which makes fear the great principle of action, implicitly condemns all self-confidence, all presumptuous security; and enjoins a constant state of vigilance and caution, a perpetual distrust of our own hearts, a full conviction of our natural weakness, and an earnest solicitude for Divine assistance.
I. What he is to fear, whose fear will make him happy. The primary object of fear is sin. The dread of sin produces the dread of temptation. The continual recurrence of temptation and the imbecility of nature make many doubtful of the possibility of salvation. In fear many have fled from possibilities of temptation into deserts and monasteries. But this is not the worthy way of meeting fear. And in cloisters men do not escape from themselves. True fear is a constant sense of the Divine presence, and dread of the Divine displeasure. True fear inspires prayer.
II. What is meant by hardness of heart. Hardness of heart is a thoughtless neglect of the Divine law: such an acquiescence in the pleasures of sense, and such delight in the pride of life, as leaves no place in the mind for meditation on higher things. To such men Providence is seldom wholly inattentive. They are often called to the remembrance of their Creator, both by blessings and afflictions; by recoveries from sickness, by deliverances from danger, by loss of friends, and by miscarriage of transactions. As these calls are neglected, the hardness is increased, and there is danger lest He whom they have refused to hear should call them no more. This state of dereliction is the highest degree of misery.
III. How, or by what causes, the heart is hardened. The most dangerous hardness proceeds from some enormous wickedness, of which the criminal dreads the recollection, and finding a temporal ease in negligence and forgetfulness, by degrees confirms himself in stubborn impenitence. A less dangerous hardness consists, not in the perversion of the will, but in the alienation of the thoughts: by such hearts God is not defied; He is only forgotten. Of this forgetfulness the general causes are worldly cares and sensual pleasures. Such men are usually either stupidly or profanely negligent of these external duties of religion, which are instituted to excite and preserve the fear of God. A great part of them whose hearts are thus hardened may justly impute that insensibility to the violation of the Sabbath. Many enjoyments, innocent in themselves, may become dangerous by too much frequency. Whatever tends to diminish the fear of God, or abate the tenderness of conscience, must be diligently avoided.
IV. The consequence of hardness of heart. “Shall fall into mischief”--both into wickedness and misery. He that hardeneth his heart shall surely become both wicked andmiserable. (S. Johnson, LL.D.)
