Why is it that, today, the masses are so utterly unconcerned about spiritual and eternal things, and that they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? Why is it that even on the battlefields multitudes were so indifferent to their soul’s welfare? Why is it that defiance of Heaven is becoming more open, more blatant, more daring? The answer is, Because “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18).
Again; why is it that the authority of the Scriptures has been lowered so sadly of late? Why is it that even among those who profess to be the Lord’s people there is so little real subjection to His Word, and that its precepts are so lightly esteemed and so readily set aside? Ah! what needs to be stressed today is that God is a God to be feared.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God’s majesty, that has had a vision of. . .
God’s awful greatness,
His ineffable holiness,
His perfect righteousness,
His irresistible power,
His Sovereign grace.
Does someone say, “But it is only the unsaved, those outside of Christ, who need to fear God”? Then the sufficient answer is that the saved, those who are in Christ, are admonished to work out their own salvation with “fear and trembling.”[i] Time was when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as a “God-fearing man”—that such an appellation has become nearly extinct only serves to show whither we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him” (Psa. 103:13)!
When we speak of godly fear, of course, we do not mean a servile fear, such as prevails among the heathen in connection with their gods. No; we mean that spirit which Jehovah is pledged to bless, that spirit to which the prophet referred when he said “To this man will I (the Lord) look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word” (Isa. 66:2). It was this the Apostle had in view when he wrote, “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king” (1 Peter 2:17). And nothing will foster this godly fear like a recognition of the Sovereign Majesty of God.
—A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God
In the journey the Lord led me to, towards my understanding of the doctrines of grace, He has used this work of dear A.W. Pink much to the profit of my soul. Only a man brought low and broken by the Spirit of God can say that these truths are precious to him. Because the Sovereignty of God is a self-crushing thing, only a man with a new spirit and a heart of flesh could ever truly accept it.
Read/listen (to) the rest of this magnificent work here, in pdf, in mp3.
Preview of A.W. Pink’s The Sovereignty of God, Part 1 of 11:
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Footnotes
- I do not agree with the interpretation of this verse by many preachers in the evangelical world. The context of the verse speaks otherwise from the norm.
If we take that phrase by itself and isolate it from the rest of the passage, we can understand it to be so, that it is upon our hands to work our salvation—even though we adhere to the Sovereignty of God in salvation. To adhere to this thought is to adhere to a contradiction in wants to bind the conscience.
Consider the passage carefully: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. ” —Philippians 2:12-13
Realize the emphasis in the passage:
“For it is God who works in you. . .”
Therefore it is to be understood, in context, that the Philippian church is to work out their salvation with fear and trembling because of this knowledge. Because it is God Himself who works in us. The Sovereign God of the universe. Having brought to light that reality, should they not tremble before this working? Fear and trembling—being at awe at the work of God upon them? [↩]
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