(here is the promised continuation from my post the other night:)
Don’t let your ways, your attitudes be what runs your life. If you fear the Lord, what are you going to do? Depart from evil. Why? Because your life is going to reflect His thinking, says Richard Jordan.
Now somebody
says, “What about the verse that says ‘perfect love casteth out all fear’?”
That’s a good one because that’s what we usually rely on. Anybody know where
that verse is?
I John 4: [18]
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath
torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
That verse is
not negating, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” I know
that’s the way we use it. But oftentimes we pull a verse out of its context
and, as the phrase stands on its own, we impute our desired meaning to it.
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is
love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
[17] Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
I John 4, by the way, is the real love chapter in the Bible. Sometimes you hear I Corinthians 16 called the love chapter. It’s not. This chapter is, though.
I John 4:11: Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
How did he do
that? Verse 9: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that
God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him."
You want to
see God’s love, look to the Cross. And look to the propitiatory
sacrifice. That’s that big old Bible word that means a sacrifice that paid for
everything that’s wrong with you.
Paul said in
Romans, [8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
John is saying,
“Herein is love. You want to see love? Here it is.” Verse 4:12: [12] No
man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and
his love is perfected in us.
Notice His
love is perfected. It comes to its intended goal. It comes to its fulness; its
maturity in us.
Verse 16: [16]
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
When he says
in verse 18, “There’s no fear in love but perfect love casteth out all fear,” it’s
fear of what? What is there in verse 17 that you might be afraid of? Yeah.
We have boldness
in the day of judgment. Why? Because of God’s love and God’s love to us
manifest at Calvary does what? It casts out all fear in the day of judgment.
You
understand, fear of punishment; fear of judgment, the verse says, causes
torment. You remember Adam and Eve, when they sinned, and God said, “Where are
you Adam?” God wasn’t inflicted with Alzheimer’s at the moment, forgetting
where Adam was. God wanted Adam to see where he was.
Adam says, “I’m
over here hid in the bushes.” God said, “Adam, why are you hid?” He said, “I
was AFRAID.” What was he afraid of? He had sinned. He knew he was naked.
God made
every creature that He made with their own clothes except Adam and Eve. He
clothed Adam and Eve with a garment of light. He gave them the original coat of
many colors, and the Lord Jesus Christ, when He walked on the earth to have the
communion with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, He walked in that same
garment of light; that coat of many colors.
Adam and Eve
had that covering to demonstrate they were His regents in the earth. They were His
representatives. They wore His uniform. It’s gone.
That’s why in
I Timothy Paul says that godly women are to adorn themselves with modest apparel.
You know this instinctively, by the way. You may have grown brazen enough to
have gotten away from it, but you know instinctively that you’re to cover your
body.
The reason for
that is that you don’t have a covering naturally; you have to acquire one. Adam
and Eve knew what was going on; they knew the effect of their sin and they were
afraid and the fear of judgment causes torment.
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