Source

Review: What the Fear of God Is and Its Ingredients

0:00 Good morning, our series of studies on one of the most vital themes of scripture, that theme being, of course, the fear of God.

0:13 One eminent commentator has said, and I quote, it is well known, what a blessing to be able to save us, to live in a day when one could save us, it is well known that the fear of God is used to signify not only the whole of his worship, but all godly affections whatsoever, and consequently, the whole of true religion. His commentator could say, it's commonly understood by anyone who knows his Bible that the fear of God can be used as a synonym for the whole of true religion. And I believe a study of Scripture leads to that conclusion, and there is this terrible negative implication.

0:58 If the fear of God is synonymous with the whole of true religion, then the absence of the fear of God is indicative of the absence of true religion. And so because of the great issues involved in this theme of Scripture, we have been seeking to come to grips with some of the broad outlines of biblical thought as touching the fear of God. Since the references and illustrations of this are so numerous, it's been impossible to say start in Genesis and trace it through to Revelation, we'd be here for years doing that, seeking to exegete and expound every passage, but rather we've sought to collate some of the main threads of biblical thought and set it before you in somewhat of an orderly fabric

1:44 that you might at least have a basic understanding of what the fear of God is, so that when you come across these many references in your own devotional reading, you'll be able to attach to those references the meaning which Scripture warrants us in attaching to them. Thus far, we have considered the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought. Secondly, the meaning of the fear of God, with its one aspect of dread, but its predominant aspect being of fear of awe and of reverence, of veneration. As one author has said, that controlling sense of the majesty and holiness of God and the profound reverence which this concept brings constitutes the essence of the fear of God.

2:39 The controlling sense of his majesty and the reverence which it produces is the essence of the fear of God. And the practical outworking of that fear is that the person who thus understands God to be such a great being counts his smile as life's greatest blessing and his frown as life's greatest privilege. So then to walk in the fear of God is to so live that one's life reflects that perspective. God's smile is all that matters.

3:14 Let the world frown, let it curse, but if God smiles, all is well. But if the world smiles and God frowns, nothing is well. So then the fear of God then has great practical and ethical implications, and the people of God are exhorted to carry out progressive holiness in the fear of God, to work out their salvation with fear and with trembling, to pass the time of their sojourning in fear. all of these admonitions which I've just quoted from the New Testament, indicating that one saved by grace is one saved unto a life lived in the fear of God. Having then spent some time on the definition of the fear of God, we tried to come to grips with the essential ingredients of

4:02 the fear of God, and I suggested that they are three. One, right views of the character of God. Two, a pervasive sense of the presence of God. And three, a constraining awareness of my obligations to God, to love Him supremely, obey Him implicitly, and to trust Him completely.

4:26 Wherever the fear of God is present, those ingredients will be there. Now, our goal this morning is to try to discover from Scripture the origin or the source of the fear of God. Now, to show the relationship of this morning's study to what is preceded, let me use a very homey illustration, one which I trust will not cause you to begin to salivate in all of your juices down here so worth that you'll be distracted from the rest of the sermon because of what I use for an illustration. But suppose someone had never seen a nice, and then you think of your favorite kind of cake.

5:05 And so you bake this cake, and you set it before this person, and the first question they ask is, what is it? And you say, that is a cake. That is something to eat. All right, having described what it is, then they ask you, what's it made of?

5:21 So you give them the ingredients. You say, it's made of flour. It's made of certain forms of shortening. it has some kind of leavening probably baking powder and it has certain forms of spices it may have some chocolate and so now you've told them not only what it is but what makes it what it is you've told them the ingredients well then when you're done that they say yes and where did the ingredients come from and you say well the flour came from grain which is grown out in the field somewhere and the shortening came from either grain or a certain animal which fed upon the field and then you tell them the origin of those ingredients.

6:00 Now, what we've done in our study thus far is we've tried to tell you what the case is. What is the fear of God? It is that regard of God which, considering Him in the majesty and glory of His person, produces in us that sense that His smile is the greatest of life's blessings and His crown the greatest of life's curses. Now, we say, what is that made of?

6:26 and we've said three ingredients. It's made up of right views of who God is, so it's pervasive sense of his presence, and it's constraining awareness of our obligation to him. And all someone says yes, but where do those ingredients come from? And so that's where we are this morning.

The Importance of Knowing the Source

6:44 Having looked at the case, told what the ingredients are, we want to show what is the origin, what is the source of these things. And may I say at the outset this is not an academic exercise. Some of you may sit here and say, oh, why in the world did the passages tell us a nice sweet thing? Here he's going to make us think again.

7:02 Oh, my friend, listen. One of the most crippling errors in all religious experience, even amongst Christians, is in this very area. It's not enough to know that a certain virtue is necessary, but you must know how to get that virtue. Remember what Paul said of his fellow Jews?

7:22 they knew you had to have righteousness to be saved. They knew that a righteous God could not accept unrighteous people in a relationship or friendship. But Paul says in Romans 10 being ignorant of God's righteousness they have gone about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted unto the righteousness of God. What was their problem?

7:47 They knew that they had to have righteousness but they weren't concerned to find out what is the source or the origin of the righteousness which alone is acceptable to God. Now I hope if you've listened with even half of one ear that you're convinced that if you don't have the fear of God you're not a Christian. You know nothing of biblical religion. I hope you're convinced of that.

8:13 But if you aren't, then dear, when I say it lovingly, it'll take hell to convince you. if all the testimonies we've brought forth from Scripture and laid them out, if these things have not convinced you that it's necessary that you possess the fear of God, I don't know what will. All the great crippling harm can come if you don't see the right place to get the fear of God. Not enough to know you must have it, but where you get it.

8:43 And so this is not an academic exercise. It's a matter of great spiritual concern. And it's only because of that that I've wrestled with trying to lay out in some simple, clear way the biblical material on the subject. Well, how will we answer the question then, what is the origin or source of the fear of God?

The Fear of God as a Distinct Blessing of the New Covenant

9:04 I want to do it by, first of all, showing that the fear of God implanted in the heart is a distinct blessing of the covenant of grace. Now, I'll explain what I mean by that. And then secondly, I want to demonstrate from Scripture how the fear of God is planted in the heart by the work of God's grace. First of all, then, let's establish in Scripture that the implanting of the fear of God in the heart of any fellow girl, man, or woman is a distinct blessing of the covenant of grace.

9:39 As we have been considering in the adult class in recent weeks, all of God's dealings with men are on the basis of his covenantal relationships to them. God pledges to do certain things upon certain conditions which he himself determines. Now, the blessings of salvation, according to Scripture, the blessings of the saving grace of the triune God, come to us in the terms of what Scripture calls the everlasting covenant, described sometimes under the terms of the new covenant, when the blessings of that covenant are contrasted with the Mosaic economy. Now, Jesus said in the institution of the first occasion of the Lord's Supper,

10:30 this cup is the new covenant in my blood. In other words, all that he is to do in the shedding of his blood has distinct reference to the blessings to be secured within the framework of the new covenant. No man receives any blessing of the covenant apart from the blood which Jesus shed, But all who receive any benefits from that blood receive them in terms of the distinct blessings of the new covenant. So then everyone who has any interest in the blood of Christ should be vitally concerned about the new covenant.

11:16 Now what blessings were promised in that covenant? And if you want a good exercise for your studies this afternoon to sanctify the Lord's Day, then study in detail the section in Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, and Jeremiah 32, where you have the clearest statement in the Old Testament concerning the peculiar blessings that God will bring under the New Covenant. And we know that these passages apply because the Holy Spirit quotes them in the New Testament, particularly in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10. But now the passage that I have particular concern that we look at this morning is Jeremiah chapter 32.

11:57 for of the passages dealing with this matter of the new covenant it alone speaks directly to the matter of the fear of God and its place in the new covenant. Now remember what we're trying to do so you don't get lost in the woods and can't see the trees or can't see the woods for the trees. We're establishing the fact that the origin of the fear of God was the blessing promised in the New Covenant. Jeremiah chapter 32, and now beginning with verse 38.

12:36 All of these blessings of the New Covenant are couched in the language that is suffused with references to Israel, to Judah, where God was giving his prophecies through that people. But we know that they have a reference to all of the people of God as they are thus used in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10. Verse 38. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

13:03 And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them to do them good. Now here's the pivotal phrase. And I will put my fear in their heart that they may not depart from me Yea I will rejoice over them to do them good and will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul Now in the climate of promising

13:49 mercy to his people, promising good to his people, God says he will put his fear into their hearts, verse 40, thus securing their perseverance in his way. Notice the relationship, I will put my fear in their hearts that they may not depart from me. In the old economy, though God set his law before them, though they had such displays of his majesty and power that they trembled and dared not touch the mount, they went a-whoring from him time after time after time after time until God has to send a whole nation into captivity because

14:34 of their spiritual hoarding. Now he says, in the administration of this new covenant, of the blessings of the everlasting covenant, all the people who come under the blessings of this covenant will not go a-whoring from me. They will not depart from me, and the reason they will not is this. I will put my fear into their hearts. I will so establish them in my fear from the heart, that is the seed of their beings, that they will cling to me, cling to my ways, and will not depart from me. So then what do we learn from this statement in the prophecy of Jeremiah.

15:18 We learn, first of all, that the fear of God is a distinct blessing of the everlasting covenant. No man fears God unless he has the fear of God within the framework of the covenant of grace. Secondly, it is a distinctly sovereign work of God. I will put my fear into the heart.

15:43 How can God state it any more clearly that he is going to do this. He will do it within the framework of the everlasting covenant, and he says, I will put it into the heart. The realm in which he establishes his fear is the seat of a man's being, and what a man is in his heart, he is. Keep thy heart, for I'll just get are the issues of life.

16:07 As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. God says then, what I do will not be a surface thing that will merely affect them for a time, as in the administration of the Mosaic economy, when they trembled for a time, and went under the prophet Elijah. There is this demonstration of power, and the nation falls for a time upon its face, saying, The Lord is God, the pattern of the nation as a nation with spiritual whoredom, and turning from God continually. But he says, Not so.

16:39 All who come under the blessings of this covenant will have my fear implanted in the heart. It will secure their cleaving unto me. And the fifth thing this passage tells us is that it will be done in a context of gracious blessing. Verse 38, I will be their God.

16:59 I will do good to them. Verse 41, I will rejoice over them so that this implanting of his fear is within the context of the blessings of grace. Now, what can we conclude from this prophecy of Jeremiah? Two things.

17:16 One, there is no way to be a partaker of the fear of God but to have it put into our hearts as a distinct blessing of the new covenant. No such fear is ever found growing in purely Adamic soil. there's only one attitude to God that you can grow in your heart by nature Romans 3.18 there is no fear of God before their eyes now by nature if your conscience becomes awakened you may dread God with a dread that wishes God were not as Adam did he was afraid when he heard the voice of God he wished that somehow God would go into a state of non-existence that you won't fear God with this fear of awe and veneration

18:07 that binds you to him in a relationship of love and obedience. Only those who come under the blessings of the new covenant, no way to be a partaker of this fear, but in the way of the new covenant. It doesn't come by education. It doesn't come by spiritual osmosis.

18:26 It comes only as you enter the blessings of the new covenant. But the second conclusion we draw from this passage is that all who are partakers of the blessings of the new covenant will evidence that the fear of God has been planted in their hearts. No such thing as a sinner forgiven by the blood of the covenant who doesn't fear God.

18:48 No such thing as one who comes to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and is pardoned, but who then goes out to walk indifferent to God's fear. No, no. No way to know the fear of God but coming under the blessings of the new covenant all who are under any of its blessings are under this blessing of his peace. Having established then the first principle that the origin of the fear of God is that it is a distinct blessing of the new covenant consider with me now the manner in which the fear of God is imparted to the human heart in the New Testament.

How God Puts His Fear into Hearts: Jeremiah 31:31-34

19:29 I don't mean to be irreverent when I ask this question. Does God, as it were, form a disposition called the fear of God? And then, like you put money into a safe, does he just hunk it down in the heart of a sinner? Is that what he does?

19:45 Now, I don't limit it. He could do that. If he can put into the minds of heathen kings like Cyrus to be kindly disposed to his people in order to fulfill his words of prophecy. I have no question that God can do anything he wants along this line.

20:01 It says the heart of the king is in his hand, he turns it as he will. Now the question is not what God can do, but has scripture revealed how he puts the fear of God into our hearts? That's the issue. And it's a beautiful thing when we discover that with so much of God's workings in grace, God's working in grace does not bypass the natural structure of how man is made the operations of his mind and his affection but it works behind and underneath and in and through them so that many times it's difficult to discern our working from his work you know what Philippians 2 says God worketh in you how?

20:45 to bypass the use of your wishing and desiring and choosing and willing and doing? Do we just sort of become little puppets at the end of the strings of God's working, waiting for impulses to move us to prayer, to move us to witness, to move us to holy deed? No, no. God works in you to will.

21:07 Who works beneath the level of my consciousness? All I'm conscious of, that I chose to come to church. that I chose when Mr. Bischoff was praying to give myself with him as he prayed, as he worshipped.

21:21 I chose to have my heart go out with him. God was working in me to will and to do of his good pleasure so that he doesn't work in us bypassing what we are as human beings but laying hold of all that we are, working beneath and above and outside and through and in. And this is the beauty of the working of his spirit. And so, turning to Jeremiah chapter 31, we can see how he plants this fear in our hearts as we parallel this passage dealing with the blessings of the new covenant with what we've already read in Jeremiah 32.

22:02 Jeremiah chapter 31, beginning with verse 31. 1. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord.

22:25 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. blessing number one I will put my laws in their inward part and in their heart will I write it. What's the first distinct blessing then of the new covenant? And this is the passage quoted almost word for word in Hebrews chapter 8.

22:52 God says this is the first thing I will do. I will powerfully and inwardly incline them to a life of obedience. what I require of them will not only be external to them. They had that in the Mosaic economy.

23:10 They knew what I required of them. I wrote it with my own finger upon the tablets of stone. But he said with the few exceptions of those two Israelites within Israel, very few of them could say with David, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. But he said in the new covenant, everyone who comes under the blessing of this covenant will not only have the external standard of my law to tell him what to do, but he said I will write my law upon the heart.

23:45 There will be an inward affinity to that law, so that there will be an inclination to keep and to obey that holy law. God says I will not only set my requirements before them, but I will inwardly incline them to a life of obedience. Now, what is that but the third ingredient of the fear of God? I called it a constraining awareness of my obligations to God.

24:11 Wasn't that the third ingredient of the fear of God? And God says here, I'll put that in you. I will write my law upon the heart, so there will be a constraining awareness of your obligations to me, and a delight to perform your obligations. I delight to do thy will O my God Why?

24:29 Thy law is within my heart External to me Telling me what to do Yes But internal within me Inclining me To the life of obedience What's the second thing God says he'll do? Notice The latter part of verse 33 And I will be their God And they shall be my people All that I am As I've revealed myself as God. And in the new covenant we know that that takes in the whole revelation made in the person and work of his dear son. All that I am as God, they will gladly own. And he says, not only will I be their God, not only will, let me get the phrasing again, I will

25:17 be their God, they shall be my people. They will not only own me as I've revealed myself, but I will own them. Now what is this? But God bringing himself into an intimate covenant relationship to his people, filling them with this pervasive sense of his presence and of their relationship to him and his to them.

25:46 And isn't that the second ingredient of the fear of God? where a man recognizes this great, mighty, transcendent, holy, powerful God is not a God out there somewhere, but he is my God. And I am his child. I belong to him, and he belongs to me in this covenantal relationship.

26:08 Because this is what I'll do. He'll commit himself to an intimate relationship with his people, which is one of the great pivotal issues of all God's covenant relationship. You see it come to its fullest expression in the second last chapter of the book of the Revelation where the new heavens and the new earth are described and John says, God himself shall be with them and he will be their God and they shall be his people. That's what heaven's all about.

26:39 That's what it's all about. And God says, this is what I pledge in the new covenant. Then what's the third thing he promises here? Verse 34.

26:47 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. God says in the new covenant he will impart a true and inward knowledge of himself to his people. Under the old economy there were some that truly knew God But the great masses of them they didn know him saw such mighty demonstrations of his power but they were utterly ignorant of his heart God tells them, look, I hear you're groaning down here in Egypt. I'm moved with pity and compassion.

27:29 I send Moses down to be a deliverer, to bring you out in my pity and compassion. And they're no sooner out of Egypt, down by the Red Sea. And what do they do? They come to Moses and say, look, God brought us out to kill us.

27:41 They didn't know Jehovah. They had no knowledge of his heart. To think that of God, the God who said, I've heard your cry. I've heard your pleas.

27:52 They've come up into my presence in love and in pity. I'll redeem you. They turn around and they've brought us out to kill us. How would you feel as a father if you told your son, look, I've planned a wonderful day for you.

28:05 We're going to do dust and dust and dust. And you know sooner get in the car and you say, Daddy, are you going to take and run this car off a cliff and kill me? You say, son, you don't know me. You don't know me.

28:15 I've told you what my... They didn't know him.

28:18 They didn't know him. Oh, a few did, but they didn't know him. They didn't know his power. They'd seen those miracles and the plagues upon Egypt.

28:25 And yet here's a little seed. They have things bigger than ours are. We've had it. They didn't know him.

28:32 They didn't know him. But he says in the new covenant, They'll not need to be tutoring one another, saying, Know the Lord, for one of the blessings of the new covenant will be what? The impartation of a true and inward experimental knowledge of God. And what is that?

28:49 But what I called earlier, Right views of the character of God, Inwardly and spiritually perceived. And so the three ingredients of the fear of God are all here. God says, I'll put these things into their heart, and by putting the ingredients there, you get the cake. When you put the flour and the shortening and the leavening and everything in the right proportions, you come up with a cake.

29:13 Where the ingredients are put together, you get the end product. God says, I will put my fear into their hearts. How will he do it? By, number one, we saw, by first of all, he says, inwardly disposing them to a life of obedience, making them aware of their obligations to me and making them delight in the discharge of that obligation.

29:38 I will, he says, commit myself to an intimate relationship to them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. And, he says, I will bring them to an experimental knowledge of who I am.

29:49 But now notice carefully, I left out one phrase at the end. And this is, as it were, the pivot upon which everything else stands and rests. For, for, I will do all of this in the light of and with reference to and because of this great blessing, I will forgive their iniquity and their sin will I remember no more. in other words the base upon which all these other blessings rest and that by which the others are supported is the blessing of full and final forgiveness of sins.

Forgiveness as the Pivot: Psalm 130:1-4

30:33 All these things that I said I would do inclining you to my will giving you an experimental knowledge of myself owning you as my people so that you own me as your God All of this, he says, is inseparably joined to the forgiveness of sins, and only he who receives that forgiveness will know the other blessings of the new covenant implanted in his heart. And so you see there is, in the development of the thought of the prophet, and again I remind you it's quoted in Hebrews 8 to show this is what Christ came to effect, there is this inseparable relationship between having the ingredients of the fear of God

31:19 and therefore having the fear of God, and being in a state of conscious forgiveness through the blood of the covenant. Now there's one text of scripture that ties those two thoughts together beautifully, and I want you to turn to it for the remainder of our time this morning. And let me exhort you to gird up the loins of your mind and pray that the Spirit of God will make this truth increasingly real or perhaps real for the first time. Here in the 130th Psalm, the context is a state of dejection by the people of God.

31:55 They are in what the psalmist describes, the depth. and the first verse comes to us out of the depths have I cried unto thee O Lord that's the context out of the depths when you're in the depths you may not be able to shout but you can cry and that's what he does out of the depths I cry I can't shout I can't rejoice but I can cry I can cry Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attended to the voice of my supplications. Now we get a little hint as to what his depths are. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who couldst stand? As

32:40 he contemplates who God is, holy, lofty, spotless light, purity,

32:50 inflexible justice.

32:53 He says, Lord, if a God like you should mark iniquity. That is, if you should take account of every sin I have committed, every deflection from your holy law in thought, in word, in deed, if you should mark all that I have done that is contrary to your law, if you should hold me to an account for all that I failed to do that is required by your law, who, Lord, could stand? That is, who could abide in your presence? As Psalm 1 says, The wicked shall not stand in the judgment.

33:28 They shall be overcome. They shall shrivel before the sight of his burning holiness and their own guilt and sin. And so the psalmist asked the question, O God, if you should mark iniquity, who could stand? And if we cannot stand before God with delight, we can't walk in his fear.

33:45 How can you hold delightful communion with a God before whom you sent nothing but bread and terror? Who could stand before you, God? There's the question. But then verse 4 brings out the affirmation, But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be healed.

34:10 He says, Lord, no one could stand before you. If you mark iniquity, if you are to punish iniquity, if you are to give me what we deserve, and if I cannot stand before you, I will know nothing of a heart inclined to do your will. I will know nothing of being able to own you as my God and have you own me as your child. I will know nothing of this inward experimental acquaintance with you that makes you delight in me and me with you.

34:35 Hence, Lord, I will know nothing of true fear. I can know dread. I can know the terror of a felix who trembles. But, Lord, I cannot stand.

34:44 But, he says, the answer to this dilemma is a way of forgiveness has been discovered in God. and the result of discovering forgiveness in God is that it brings the discoverer into the fear of God. See it? So what does this text tell us?

35:05 Art sets before us in a beautiful synthesis what I've been trying to say throughout the last 15 to 20 minutes. That the end of this disclosure of his way of forgiveness on the part of God is to have a people who truly fear Him. And a discovery of God's way of forgiveness will always secure the fear of God in the heart of the one who discovers it. You see, how is that?

Why Forgiveness Produces Fear: Display of God's Attributes

35:37 If the text had read, there is justice with God that he may be feared, I could understand that. But there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. How does the forgiveness of God discovered secure the fear of God? May I suggest two ways?

35:54 Number one, because in that which was wrought to work out forgiveness, there has been the fullest, most intense, and glorious display of all the attributes of God. If the fear of God begins with right views of God's character, seeing His majesty and His glory, then I say that discovering God's way of forgiveness is to discover the brightest display of all His glorious attributes. Therefore, because there is forgiveness with God, He is here. How did that forgiveness come?

36:34 Are you staggered at the wisdom that framed worlds, that formed the intricacies of the little cell as well as the expanses of the galaxy. Ah, listen, that's all like kindergarten knowledge when you stand baffled before the wisdom of the virgin's womb, of an incarnate God, the wisdom that would conceive a way of forgiving sinful men by God himself actually becoming a man, the offended God, taking the offense upon himself and so discharging that offense that he can be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. No wonder Christ is called the wisdom of God. What a display of wisdom.

37:20 Ah, but what about his holiness? Do you see his holiness when you look out with those escaping ones from Sodom and Gomorrah and see the plains going up in fire and brimstone and you say, who's doing this? You say, God. Oh, what a holy God you must be.

37:38 Hating the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah in the cities of the plains so much that he makes, as it were, heaven to be a belching oven to pour out fire and brimstone, my friend, listen. That's no display of God's holiness in comparison with Calvary. For when you look to the cross and see the shrouded heaven covered in blackness, look upon the heaving bosom of the Son of God, and then you hear that cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer, the only answer is, God is so holy that when his own beloved son, the one of whom he spoke from heaven on several

38:24 occasions and said, this is the one in whom I am well pleased, when the sins of man are being imputed to him, the father must bring down the stroke of his wrath upon his own beloved one, until he cries out with a cry that eternity will not be able to fathom him. My God, my God, why hast thou to say? There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. You see, to discover the way of forgiveness wrought out in the incarnation of Christ, in the terrible agonies of Christ, is to see a display of wisdom far beyond any other display God has made.

39:06 It's to see a display of holiness far beyond anything God has ever made. It's to see a display of power beyond any other display that God has made. Even the power that raised His Son from the dead. We read in Colossians 2 that Christ made an open show of the powers of darkness when He triumphed over them in His death and in His glorious resurrection.

39:33 should think of all the powers of hell that would have sought to keep him in the state of death. And when Paul would try to somehow gather some analogy, some illustration of the power of God operative in believers in Ephesians 1, what does he reach for? He speaks of the power of his might, which he wrought in Christ when he what? Raised him from the dead.

40:00 there's the display of God's mighty power, the display of his love. Who can speak of it? God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The display of what I know no other way to describe than majestic condescension.

40:21 Philippians 2, thought it not robbery to remain equal with God, emptied himself, took upon himself the form of a servant. Now do you see why the way of forgiveness discovered produces the fear of God? How can you discover those things without standing amazed before such a God? Can you?

Why Forgiveness Produces Fear: Peace from Dread Enables True Fear

40:42 Impossible. And the second reason why forgiveness and fear are joined together is because a believing reception of that forgiveness which God offers through his Son brings peace and rest from the fear of dread and of terror and binds the heart of God in grateful love and glad submission, even the submission of an adopted son. Who can discover that kind of forgiveness in God without saying, Dear Lord, I get myself to be to all that I can do. And so God, by showering mercy upon the undeserving and displaying forgiveness,

41:33 brings his people into this field. So we see then that the fear of God is secured upon the basis of mercy and grace. in a way which all the terrors of the law could never approach.

41:47 It considers God's mercies and benefits given more than his judgments promised. The fear of dread thinks of judgment and temples. The fear of God thinks of mercies given and worship. It regards more the open hand of God's blessing than the closed fist of his judgment.

Practical Implications: Against Legalism and Antinomianism

42:09 this brings me to close the message this morning by drawing out several practical implications of this teaching as to the source of the fear of God one very basic doctrinal implication and I hope you'll listen carefully and then several practical behold the folly of all man-made religions for they will either seek to produce the fear of God on another basis other than forgiveness or they will promise forgiveness in a way which doesn't produce the fear of God. All deflections from biblical religion will do one of two things. They'll say like the Romanists, well, you can't tell people they're completely,

42:55 fully accepted and forgiven, they'll go out and live like hell. That's the claim of Rome. You don't dare do that. They'll go out and raise cames.

43:03 You mean tell a man he's forgiven and accepted, Heaven is just as certain now as though he were there. He'll live like the devil. And so they say the way you produce the fear of God that produces obedience is rub the conscience raw with terrors and with insecurity and with doubts about one's acceptance. Use the conscience raw.

43:24 Rub it with duties. Rub it with terrors. Rub it with judgment. Then the person will tremblingly try to obey God, hoping they'll make it.

43:33 That's not physical religion. That's evil. and this truth that we've dealt with this morning exposes it for what it is. Oh no, no, no.

43:43 God takes the raw conscience full of the terrors of the damned and disclosing the way of forgiveness binds that heart to him in fear, true fear, based upon love and trust. Then the second aspect of false religion is this and this is what you find much in our days. They'll say, oh yes, through the blood of the cross, all in complete forgiveness. And there are people sitting here this morning who have no terrors.

44:10 You don't tremble like some of my poor Roman Catholic friends do, hoping and wondering if maybe you'll wake up in purgatory tomorrow. You're dead sure you're going to wake up in heaven because you're forgiven through the blood of the cross. But your forgiveness is coming away which has left your heart utterly devoid of the fear of God. you don't know what it is to walk before him with a careful conscience you don't know what it is to be powerfully inclined to obedience to his holy law from the heart you'll go out and desecrate this day you've thrown your two hours before God this morning you'll use the rest of the day as you please no reference to his law you order your home the use of your TV your time no reference to his law

44:56 and yet you don't have any terrors of the damned no, why? because my friend you've believed a lie that you could have forgiveness in a way that left you a stranger to his fear and both of those are errors that are damning at the core you can't fear God until you come into the climate of full forgiveness but if you come into the climate of full forgiveness you must fear him and if you don't you've never known his saving mercy well then several practical words of direction in closing There are some of you here this morning to whom I would give a word of direction. I'd call you awakened souls. You've got a conscience that is rubbed raw.

Consolation for Troubled Saints and Warning to the Deceived

45:39 The terrors of the law and of God track you down. And you have a fear of dread, but you know nothing of that fear that is based upon forgiveness. You have the spirit of bondage, but you know nothing of the spirit of adoption which makes you cry, Abba, Father. I say to you you'll find no rest and no true fear of God until you come as you are to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and see him seated upon a mercy seat there is a way of forgiveness that he may be feared you'll not fear him until you trust him as your savior and I plead with you

46:24 to cast yourself upon him just as you are for that's how he bid you to come. And then a word of consolation for some of you troubled souls, true children of God, who feel themselves so sinful. And at times you wonder, how can it be that God bears so long with the likes of me? Ah, my friend, listen.

46:45 Don't listen to people who tell you, I'll forget your sin. Just rejoice in the Lord. Now don't forget your sin. You let the Holy Ghost show you all he wants of it.

46:54 realizing he's only shown you the one thousandth part of the day. But I don't stop there. For listen, when you've said, verse 3, God, if you should mark the victory, who could stand? The more you see of your sin, the more you'll be amazed at the display of all the magnitude of God's glory in providing forgiveness.

47:18 And the more you see the magnitude of his glory in providing forgiveness, the more you'll fear him. There is forgiveness for thee that thou mayest be feared. To whom much is forgiven, Jesus said the same way. Loving much.

47:34 So when God's showing you more of your sin, it's because he would draw you deeper into his love. Don't run away from that which would make you love him more. The way to love him more is not to think positive thoughts and say, well, if I'm accepted in Christ, I'm not going to think about my sin. I'm not going to think about my foul motives.

47:50 I'm not going to think about the whinings of my corrupt mind. I'm just going to be happy, happy, happy in Jesus all day long. Rubbish. The Holy Ghost never told anybody that.

48:01 If we live in the Psalms, it will keep us from that. If we live in the Psalms, it will keep us from that. Let the sight of your sin bring you to tremble with David in verse 3. Lord, if you should mark my iniquities.

48:13 That's the child of God talking. That's not somebody who hasn't been converted. He says, Lord, if you should mark my iniquities. I, who and your child, who could stand, put this forgiveness with me.

48:26 And come again in the words of that great devotional writer who wrote the book on the declension and progress of religion in the soul, Octavius Winslow's book, excellent work, where he says, Soak the roots of thy profession daily in the blood of Christ. That's it. And as you soak them in the blood of Christ, and come again and again to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. That's how the fear of God will be heathened.

48:55 And then I would close with a word of what I trust will be a word of conviction to some of you who are deceived. There are many of you here this morning who feel yourselves to be forgiven. No dread, no fear of hell because you feel all is well. You say, I have the blessings of the new covenant.

49:13 But my friend, where is this fear? He said if he's brought you into that covenant, he's put his fear within your heart? Do you display the constraining awareness of your obligations to him? Do you display this pervasive sense of his presence?

49:29 As one servant of God has said, but if any who imagine themselves partakers of God's forgiveness, who do not at the same time feel their hearts struck with a godly fear of the divine majesty, let them know that all their joys are self-invented. dissection since it is this very end to this very end that there is forgiveness with God that he may be healed. Has your understanding of forgiveness bound you to a life lived in the fear of God?

50:06 Let me make it more personal. If I were to ask your children what's the one thing that characterizes your mom and dad above everything else would they say he fears God. In everything in the home, Daddy's first regard is, what's God say? How we'll keep the Lord safe?

50:26 What's God say? How we'll plan our lives? What's God say? What we'll do as a child?

50:31 What's God say? Would your children say that's the dominant characteristic of you as a father? Would they? Would they?

50:39 What about you as a mother? To ask your children, what do you think most of when you think of your mom? would they instinctively say, well, I don't know how to describe it, but all I know is that, well, in everything Mom does and says, it's what God says that matters most. It's knowing God.

50:56 It's believing Him, trusting Him, loving Him. Is that what your kids would say to you?

51:03 Would they?

51:05 And would they say, well, that which characterizes Dad most is, I'll let your conscience go to work.

Closing Appeal and Doxology

51:12 What would they put? that which characterizes mom most is how I thank God that I can give that credit to my parents anyone ask me what's your mom think most about it I'd have to say before I was converted I would have said it was clenched teeth everything God God God now I can say thank God everything God God What did he say about rearing children? Not what did psychology say. Not what did you say.

51:49 What's God say.

51:54 Not what does society say about the home. What's God say. Is that what you, do you think your kids are going to make that testimony to you? My friend, you can't buy them.

52:04 You can buy pretty clothes. Keep them right up the step with their fashion. You can't buy that, Ritman. You've got to earn it.

52:13 and you earn it in a life lived in the fear of God. Thank God I know there are some of you kids that would jump off your benches this morning and say, Pastor, that's my mom and dad. There are some of you that wouldn't dare go home and ask your own kids that they could be one that would jump off the bench this morning because you know they couldn't if they were honest.

52:35 Can I make it any plainer? Will you go out another Lord's Day with just a Christ of convenience? Oh, you say, oh God, by your dear Son in the Spirit, give me such a sight of forgiving grace that I'll begin to truly fear. That's the origin of the fear of God.

52:59 The climate of the gracious provision of the new covenant. Isn't it wonderful, child of God, to look back and say, you mean God did all of that to bring you to fear? known unto God are all his works from the beginning of time but the scripture says that the works of God are sought out of all those that have pleasure there in has it been a pleasure to trace out this morning how God put his fear into your heart does it make you want to say hallelujah what a Savior when God said I'm going to take that sin I'm going to bring him in tow and I'm going to put my fear into his heart and then gave us such a sight of his saving mercy that broke and we didn't know what happened. I look back now and say, how stupid I was, but all I found, I couldn't keep away from this book.

53:45 I wanted to know what it said and I wanted to do it. And God wasn't just a word that Mom and Dad talked about. He was my God and I knew him and I knew that he owned me.

53:55 And now to see, I mean, God did all of that. A little dirty mouth senior high school up in Stanford, Connecticut. Oh, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

54:10 Ah, dear friends, if you can't be amazed in tracing out the work of God, may God grant that you have cast yourself upon his dear son, the mediator of the new covenant. This is what Jesus does. Flee to him and ask him to have mercy upon it. Let us pray.