Why Is God To Be Feared?
I. Introduction:
A. God is love (I John 4:8 and I John 4:16).
- He is “the God of love” (II Corinthians 13:11).
- He has shown love towards those that did not love Him (Romans 5:6-10 and I John 4:10).
- He is both good and severe (Romans 11:22).
- He has done good and harm (Psalms 78:43-64).
II. Body: God Is To Be Feared (I Chronicles 16:25, Psalms 76:7, Psalms 89:7, and Hebrews 12:28-29)!
A. God is to be feared because He has some attributes that are frankly; scary (Hebrews 10:31). Consider a FEW things…
- He hates certain PEOPLE (Psalms 5:4-5 and Psalms 11:5-7).
- He is cruel (Isaiah 13:9).
- He is jealous (Deuteronomy 6:14-15).
- He is patiently vengeful (Nahum 1:2 and II Peter 2:9).
- Some people are an abomination [disgusting; abhorrence] to Him (Deuteronomy 25:11-16, Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 12:22, Proverbs 15:9, Proverbs 16:5, Proverbs 17:15, Proverbs 20:10, Proverbs 28:9, etc.).
- He will laugh at some who are trying to turn to Him (Proverbs 1:24-33).
- He did not spare His only begotten Son (Romans 8:31-32).
- He commanded genocide (Deuteronomy 20:16-17).
- He gave the death penalty to a couple that lied (Acts 4:32-5:11).
- We don’t even know the extent of the power of His anger (Psalms 90:11).
- Mark 9:42-48
- II Thessalonians 1:7-9
- II Peter 2:17
- Revelation 21:8
- Being wicked is the opposite of keeping the ways of the Lord (II Samuel 22:22).
- There is no hope in being wicked (Proverbs 10:28 and Proverbs 14:32).
III. Conclusion: He is to be feared, because the worst to come is still in the future (Hebrews 10:26-30; cf. Jude 1:7)!