FEAR NOT

"And Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that you sin not." —Exodus 20:2 [KJV]

Pride and self-confidence are deeply rooted in the human heart. False hopes are built on self-righteous pleas. By these the heart is blinded to the exceeding sinfulness of sin; hardened against the fear and dread of the Lord; and such live in rebellion against the truth as in Jesus. Like Paul, we are all naturally alive without the law; and, with the Israelites of old, are ready to say, "All that the LORD hath spoken we will do."—Exodus 19:8. Alas! poor souls utter such words of ignorance and pride, when, like the disciples on the mount, "they know not what they say." But whom the Lord loves, He proves. The Lord is a jealous God; He will permit no flesh to glory in His presence; nor shall His dear children live without His fear, and a holy hatred of pride and sin; therefore they must go out of their tents of vain confidence.

When the Lord discovers Himself in glory and majesty, as a holy, sin-avenging God; when the law, in its holy, just, and righteous demands is revealed in the conscience, it makes the stoutest heart to tremble: it fills the guilty, self-accused sinner with fear and horror, and then ''sin revives, and he dies"—dies to all his former false hopes. Yea, and he would, if left to his own dreadful apprehensions, fly from God, and sink into black despair, and die without hope. But the dear Mediator is ever near, and prevents this: He speaks in love, "Fear not." This dispensation is not to destroy your soul, but to kill your vain hopes—to prove and try you—to shew you what is in you: that you may be dead to the law, be alive to God by a better hope, through the faith of Me, your Jesus. So fear the Lord with a loving fear, as to die to sin. Thunders of wrath, terrible peals of curses are sometimes necessary to be heard in the conscience; they fulfil God's will. The bleak north wind of the law kills the terrain of nature; while the warm, comforting south wind of the gospel cherishes and enlivens the seeds of grace.

Thus the Spirit humbles proud hearts, revives contrite spirits, endears Christ, Who hath endured the curses we have deserved, and embitters sin to believing, penitent souls. "Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living."—Job 33:29, 30.

The law discovers guilt and sin, And shews how vile our hearts have been: Only the gospel can express Forgiving love, and cleansing grace.

My soul, no more attempt to draw Thy life and comfort from the law: Fly to the hope the gospel gives; The man that trusts the promise lives.

-William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)