Whatever happened to the fear of God? It is clear from the story in our text that the primitive church in Jerusalem had it, but we have all but lost it in 21st century America. The early church manifested God's great grace bestowed on them, as we saw in our last message. But God's grace and mercy must not be confused with His holiness and justice. We dare not presume upon God mercy and grace to the point that we think He has no right to be angry at sin. He is the same God Who dramatically judged the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira many years ago. He has not “mellowed” in His old age. If we would be a great church in God's eyes, we must both love Him and fear Him.
There is nothing incompatible about love and godly fear. Great fear produces great holiness, great confidence, and great exploits for God. We cannot worship God aright unless we stand in awe of His holy presence. Let us fear only God, and we will not be held hostage by the fear of man. The God Who judged Ananias and Sapphira is still the same today. Let us not provoke Him.
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Bob Vradenburgh is the senior pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has spent 40 years in full-time Christian service: the first 20 years as a missionary and the past 20 years in the pastorate. Bob’s passion is the expository preaching of God’s Word,...