The Key to the Treasure

Transcript S3E2

The Key to the Treasure

[00:09] 

Hello, I'm Tony Kostas, and welcome to Led Into Love. I'd like to start off talking about the fear of God – one of those things that is rarely referred to these days, unless someone's reading it out of the Bible. And if it is referred to, it tends to be kind of put pretty mildly, like talking about the fear of God being reverence.

And I used to say that the fear of God was taking God seriously. And I mean that taking Him seriously kind of describes it … but it doesn't really describe it enough.

 [00:52] 

So maybe I should explain why I want to talk to you about the fear of God, because I'm not wanting to give you teaching or an exposition of something here. I want to talk to you from my heart about who God is. Like, believe me, God being the God of the universe – being God Almighty … there are so many aspects to God. 

I think it's crazy for humanity – any human being, or all the human beings in this world put together – to think that by our understanding … by dissecting and debating and searching the Scriptures … we can somehow define God or get a handle on God. Because, you see, God isn't meant to be known like that.

[01:42] 

Even when we read the terminology in the Bible, and it talks about ‘knowing God’ or ‘the knowledge of God,’ it is not talking about knowledge as in information. It is talking about knowing someone in intimate relationship.

You can't, nobody can, comprehend God other than in intimate relationship. And then when you enter into an intimate relationship with God … God being who he is, it is eternal, it is endless. And it is all heart to heart.

That's how we were made to be. That's what God longed for when he created us in His image.

[02:24] 

So, when I talk about the fear of God, it's not a subject to be studied. It's not an aspect of what it means to be a believer or a Christian. It is something to be taken right into the depths of your relationship with God where when you draw close to Him … you see Him for who He is.

Now you may well know what, to me is the best-known verse in the Bible that refers to the fear of God. And it is: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”.

[02:59]

But not long ago, when I was reading through the book of Isaiah, I read these words in Isaiah, chapter 33, verses 5 and 6:

“The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high, He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

He will be the sure foundation for your times,

a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”

[03:31] 

Now, get that it speaks here of a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge and that the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Now, when I was a kid, we used to be fascinated by stories of pirates and movies about pirates and big treasure chests. And if you found where the treasure was hidden and you had the key to open the chest, you had all this treasure!

Well, this rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge of God is referred to here as a treasure … and that fearing God is the key to this treasure!

[04:14] 

So, does that mean you go around being scared of God? Of course, it doesn't mean that. 

But what it does mean is that as you draw close to God and you allow yourself from the inside to know Him for who He is. 

And that happens, not because you delve into trying to get to know Him. It happens because He loves to make Himself known to you.

And as you draw near to God … how do you do that? I can only ever say to anybody that this means you draw near to God – or you reach out to God … from the inside,

[04:59] 

If you want to touch God's heart, you've got to reach out from your heart.

And you know what I mean when I talk about that. I don't talk about that organ that pumps blood around your body. I'm talking about the very core of your being, the spiritual person that God made you on the inside.

[05:20] 

When we are God's people – when we live as God's people – we are not just natural human beings.

Nor are we just natural beings having a spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings for whom living in this world is a natural experience. It's a human experience.

But the person we are in the depths of our being on the inside … 

I am not the person I am that is seen and known outwardly. I'm not the person that you can know just by meeting me and talking with me. That's why Paul wrote in the Bible that for God's people, we don't know one another after the flesh. 

In other words, we don't know, really know, truly know intimately know, one another in a human way.

[06:18] 

We don't know one another because of the way we look, the way we talk, the way we think, the way we live our lives, the things we do together.

Everything that we outwardly know of one another is ‘of the flesh’. You know … you try and sum up somebody as one human being to another – you could be very right, you could be very wrong, you could be deceived, you might enjoy them, you might not like them. We're not talking about this.

We don't know one another ‘after the flesh’ or as human-to-human. We know one another after the Spirit. Which means that what my heart … again, my spirit, if you like … what my spirit discerns, what my spirit registers, what my spirit becomes aware of, concerning your spirit, you on the inside. That's how we get to know one another. And that's through the intimate relationship of God's people with one another.

[07:19] 

When Jesus said that the two Great Commandments are that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And then He says, “Love one another”. To love one another in the same way as we love God, is in that same way that we get to know one another. 

This is why we cannot … you know, as Christians, we don't have true fellowship just by getting together in church, studying our Bibles, agreeing on a set of doctrines, talking about God – even doing ‘godly’ things. You can be going out, preaching. You can be become a missionary. You can do all sorts of things that can be called ‘Christian’ or ‘godly’. But that is not the fellowship of God's people.

[08:10] 

Again, you most likely know these Bible verses that “…if we walk in the light as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin”.

I'm talking about spiritual things. Things that are only real to us inwardly when we come to God and we allow His life to come into our life. What Jesus called eternal life. That's eternal life!

When you are made alive by God and you meet someone else who is made alive by God spiritually, something registers within you. And that something is knowing one another after the Spirit.

That's person-to-person as God's people.

But then when we're talking about knowing God, do you think it's anything less spiritual?

[09:19] 

In my very first podcast episode, I talked about relationship with God, being experiential.

You do not know God except in experience. You experience Him. Not feelings. Not ups and downs and happy, or sad, or elation, or anything like that.

You know God when you experience Him on the inside because you are made for Him. And if you respond to Him, He will respond to you.

In fact, the truth is that Jesus said that we can't even come to God unless God draws us.

So if you've responded to God, or if you've been responding to God … if you feel that you're responding to God … believe me, God moved first!

God found something in you that He could touch, something in you that He could stir, something in you that He could use to attract you to Himself – because He knew you were looking for Him.

[10:20] 

However that played out. Whatever it was. However … whatever terminology you want to use for it. And because of that, God was able to draw you to Himself.

When I first came to know Him – and I've talked about that quite a bit, I know, in various episodes, because that's where it all began for me – I thought I was going along to hear Billy Graham, the evangelist speak. But what I didn't know was that God was drawing me to Himself, because He knew that I wanted Him. 

And I did want Him, as long as I can remember. Even as a young child, I wanted to know God. Only I didn't know how to know God. So I tried to find God through religion, and it never worked.

But when God drew me to Himself and made Himself known to me I did really get to know Him for who He was … and that was the beginning. That was like a new birth. 

But let's get back to what I wanted to really talk about: the fear of God.

[11:24]

You cannot have a love relationship with Almighty God without there also being an element of tremendous awe in that. There's an element of beautiful intimacy. 

I tell you, I have no words to describe the sweetness, the intimacy, the richness of the relationship that I have with God. And that's sure not unique to me.

It is exactly what God wants with everybody who comes to Him and will abandon their life into His hands.

But to also know this wonderful God, to allow yourself to see Him. I mean, honestly, there is no God like God … because God is the only true God! 

God always was and always will be, and everything else – every created thing, from the minutest thing that we can know of on this earth to the Universe whose bounds we don't even know … whose limits we don't know … were created by God.

Don't try and get your mind around that. But it is true.

[12:31]

So, when I talk about fearing God or being in awe of God, I'm not talking about, sort of, somehow in your mind trying to conceive of this huge God, because … don't even try. Don't even try. 

Your mind can't even begin to get a handle on anything like that. But as you draw near to Him and as you come to know Him – along with the absolute personal sweetness and intimacy of knowing Him and being close to Him, there's the awareness of who it is that you're relating to. And that's where the fear of God really comes in. 

It doesn't scare me away. There's a verse in the Bible that says that our God is a consuming fire.

And I like what the famous writer, George MacDonald, once wrote about that. He said, God is a consuming fire. Not a fire you run from. He's the fire you run to. So that everything that is not of God – not Godly, not acceptable to God – will be burned up so that you'll be purified.

So God is who He is in all His grandeur and all His power. Not to threaten us. Not to scare us. Not to cause us to back off from Him. But to draw us to Himself in true fear – knowing who it is that we're dealing with.

[14:07] 

One of the problems with a lot of the modern approach to, Christianity – the contemporary Christian Church – is that God has been effectively reduced to someone, or something, that an organization or a system can be structured around … with a belief in God in the centre.

You know: God is referenced. God is sung about. He is preached about. But God is the, kind of, the convenient centre focus for what men want to do and achieve – apparently, ostensibly, in His name. And when that happens, God is actually diminished so that man might be prominent and man might have His way.

Then you can create your plans. You can have your plans, whether they be for outreach, planting churches, ‘doing great things for God,’ or just your own success story, whatever it is – making people feel good, getting crowds together. 

The trouble is that is an expression of anything but the fear of God!

[15:21] 

When you know God for who He is, it makes you very, very aware that you don't even want to breathe another breath – you don't want to take another step – unless you are doing it in true relationship with Him. You don't want to utter another word in His name, unless you really are speaking in His name with His authority.

Do you remember the time when Jesus said, ”On that day, people will come to me and say, ‘Lord, we did amazing things in your name. We cast out devils. We healed the sick. We did many mighty works’.” And Jesus said, “I will say to those people, ‘Depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of iniquity’.”

What's iniquity? Iniquity is lawlessness. What He was really saying was, ‘You were doing your thing … not mine! You did things in my name, but that was iniquitous. You were lawless. You are a law unto yourself. You decided what should be done in my name and you did it. But you did it for your own fame, achievement, satisfaction!’

It doesn't matter. Your own success doesn't matter. But what He said was, “Depart from me. I never knew you!”

[16:45] 

Damning words. Because what He's saying is: ‘whatever you did in My name – even if you've performed miracles in My name, if you cast out demons in My name – I never knew you!

He's not interested in what you do in His name. He's not interested in what anyone or any church – any system, any ministry – does in His name. He's only interested in whether you are living in intimate relationship with Him so that your life, and what you do in His name, is a true expression of Him.

Otherwise, what you're actually doing is iniquitous. You are a law unto yourself.

[17:35] 

He can only be glorified. He can only be known by people – and then through people – whose lives are a true expression of Him.

And for that to be so, those people must live in true intimacy with Him. 

And to live in true intimacy with God is to live in the fear of God.

I go back to my definition I referred to before – that I don't think is adequate anymore, but for the sake of what I'm saying now … take Him really seriously.

I'm trying to think of which one of the New Testament writers, in one of the epistles, when he says, “You say you believe in God? Yeah, that's great, but what's the big deal? The devils believe and they tremble!” All of Satan's demons, they know God's real and that makes them tremble.

Well, I'm not talking about trembling like a demon … because a demon is totally at odds with God. I'm talking about fearing God from the very core of your being because of who He is.

[18:45] 

God is not in the business of scaring people. He doesn't want to scare people away from Him, nor does He want to scare people into coming to Him. God is in the business of laying down His life constantly and loving and reaching people … reaching out to people.

But as you draw near to God – remember who you're drawing near to. 

Don't approach God … don't draw near to God with any preconceptions. 

Don't try and control the relationship. 

Don't try and control the interaction that takes place between you and God.

Keep yielding to God. You can trust Him implicitly. You can trust Him beyond anything that you can imagine. 

But don't mess with Him. 

Come to Him in godly fear.

Come to Him with a heart of love and let God be your God on His terms. And then you'll find what His purpose for your life is.

[19:51]

But coming to God is not about finding the purpose of your life.

Coming to God, and living with God, is to know God and glorify Him with the way you give your life to Him. Then any way that God wants to use you (or not use you) isn't the point.

The point is that – by you giving yourself to Him just like when Jesus laid down His life for you – when you give yourself to Him, you give to Him all that you are and all that you have … all that you will ever be and all that you will ever have. 

Just as Jesus did for you.