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The God Who Is
Worship Is Due Him
God is worthy to be worshipped, and only He. There-fore, He is to be worshipped. To Him be "honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen" (I Timothy 1:17).
In Revelation chapter 4, the apostle John was caught up to Heaven in a vision. In verse 10, we read that he saw "The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, `Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.'"
In chapter 5, verse 11, John wrote, "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, `Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.'
"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, `Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.' And the four beasts said, `Amen.' And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever."
God Is To Be Feared
People in our day have lost vital knowledge of God. Adam Clarke was accurate when he said, "He who does not fear God, does not know God." This fear is not to be con-fused with the fear with which the heathen worship their gods. The heathen are afraid. The fear of God is not a "legal fear," or the fear of judgment. It is what theologians call "an evangelical fear." It is reverential fear, or the fear that is full of respect. It is sometimes called "filial fear" because it is the kind of fear that a son ought to have for his father.
Most of the people in churches in our day choose to believe that God is love, but what they conceive to be the love of God is an unholy love because it is void of justice. They worship a god who does not want sinners to feel guilty or ashamed for their sins, but who loves them just the way they are. This popular concept of God does not accept the fact that God is holy. They do not know the God of the Bible who think that God is not concerned with sin.
The vast majority of the people in our churches know nothing about the nature of God. This is the reason we no longer weep when we go to church, but we always laugh. We go anticipating a good time. Gone are those services when men would prostrate themselves before the Lord and say as Isaiah, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5). The seriousness of our spiritual state is fearful because we think we are better off than Isaiah. The knowledge of God is largely perished from our generation.
Consider the prophet's confession. "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, `Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.'" Note that the seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy," and not "Love, love, love." The most basic know-ledge of God is the fact that He is holy. Even the goodness and the love of God are erected upon His holiness. It is significant that the Bible speaks of the "Holy Spirit" but never of "the Loving Spirit."
Note the effect this vision had upon the servant of God. In verses 4 and 5, we read, "And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, `Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'"
Nor is this sentiment confined to the Old Testament; for in Luke chapter 5, Peter had fished all night and had taken nothing. The Lord told him to launch out into the deep and to let down his nets for a catch. When Peter obeyed, he enclosed so large a school of fish that the nets began to break. Peter was so overwhelmed by the nature of the Lord that he "fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, `Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord'" (Luke 5:8).
John, the beloved disciple, wrote, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, `I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:' and, `What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.' "And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, `Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death'" (Revelation 1:10-18).
Adam Clarke was correct when he said, "He who does not fear God, does not know God."
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