How to Maintain & Increase

Series Summary and Introduction to Today's Focus

0:00 We come today to the eighth and, if time permits, the last in a series of studies on one of the most basic themes of Holy Scripture, yet sad to say one of the most neglected themes of Scripture in our day, namely the fear of God. One mature and very able student of the word of God has been bold enough to make the statement, and I quote, that the fear of God is the very soul of godliness. In other words, there is no life of godliness unless it is continually animated by the soul of the fear of God.

0:50 We have spent some weeks examining many portions of scripture which set forth the importance and centrality of the fear of God. We've tried to grasp something of the essence of the fear of God, what it is. We've looked at the essential ingredients of the fear of God, the source of the fear of God. And the last two Lord's Days we considered the practical effects of the fear of God.

1:18 And we made the statements in both of those studies that Scripture warrants the conclusion that the fear of God is the soil out of which a godly life grows, and the absence of the fear of God is the soil out of which an ungodly life grows. Now, because this matter is so vital, and since maintaining a profound sense of the majesty and goodness of God with that commensurate response of regarding his smile life's greatest blessing and his frown life's greatest dread, Since this is so essential, I want us to consider this morning in this our last study,

2:05 again I say as time permits it may carry on for two Lord's days, how to maintain and to increase the fear of God in our hearts. A basic text to put into perspective that which we will be considering this morning is found in Proverbs chapter 23, verses 17 and 18.

2:32 In this portion of Scripture, we have first of all this negative command, Let not thy heart envy sinners. Don't allow your heart to begin to be jealous of the dainties of the ungodly. Don't allow your spirit to begin to be affected with any kind of a longing for what they call life's pleasures. But rather, and here's the positive command, be thou in the fear of God all the day long.

3:06 In other words, the opposite of a heart that goes out with envy towards sinners and their sinful course of life is a heart that maintains a proper sense of the fear of God. Then in verse 18, he gives us the reason for this. For surely there is a reward, and thy hope shall not be cut off. When we view the end of the wicked as compared with the end of the God-fearing man, there is no question as to who was the wise one.

3:38 and it's the immediacy of sin's enticements as well as the immediacy of sin's delights that becomes the bait which sinners lay hold of whereas the godly man fully conscious that there is pleasure in sin for a season even to the godly to the extent that he feeds the remains of corrupt nature there is pleasure for the moment of that indulgence The child of God is the one whose whole life is geared not by the perspective of the now generation. For every child of God is a member of the then generation. For Paul says we look not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen.

4:24 For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Now, it's especially this positive command in the text that I would direct your attention to this morning. Be thou in the fear of God all the day long. But the question that some of you have even asked me is, Now, Pastor, before you're done, you're going to bring us something, aren't you, on how to maintain the fear of God.

4:53 And I assured you that I would. And that's the issue to which we would address ourselves this morning. how do we maintain the fear of God in our hearts? That this is the will of God is beyond dispute in the light of this text.

5:09 Be thou in the fear of God all the day long. And so we have an explicit command in the light of the fact that we're commanded to be holy and godly and the fear of God is the soil of godliness or the soul of godliness. It doesn't matter which analogy, which metaphor you consider. why then it's clear that it's God's will for us to maintain and increase the fear of God in our hearts.

General Principle: Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

5:37 Now in answer to that question, how do we do this? I want you to consider with me first of all a general principle which is the foundation of the answer and then we shall look at some specific guidelines. If that word is less offensive than the word rules, eight rules for maintaining the fear of God. So if you have an aversion to the word rules, you may take the lesser offensive term of guidelines.

6:06 First of all, then, a general principle which we must understand and walk in the light of it if we are to increase and maintain the fear of God in our hearts. What is that principle? Well, simply stated, it is this. When it comes to the outworking of the Christian life, what God declares to be his own work in us is to be the concern of our conscious spiritual endeavors.

6:38 Let me repeat it. What God declares to be his own work in us is to be the concern of our conscious spiritual endeavors. Let me illustrate. The familiar passage, Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23, states that the fruit of the Spirit is, is, and then we have a list of these graces of the Christian life.

7:10 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. wherever you see a person who manifests genuine, selfless Christian love, you must attribute the presence of that love in the individual to a deep, inward, powerful work of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, the manifestation of His presence and work is love. Wherever you see genuine joy and peace and these other Christian graces.

7:54 And I think this goes without dispute. if we have any acquaintance with scripture, we know that these graces are only brought into the life and flow out of the life by the work of the Spirit. However, the same God who tells us that these things are the fruit of his working, tells us through the same apostle in the book of Colossians, and I read now from chapter 3 and verse 12, put on therefore as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering. Verse 14, and above all

8:41 these things put on love. Now, wait a minute. Here you tell me it's the fruit of the Spirit, and it's God's work to produce it. Now you turn around and you tell me to put it on. And putting on is a verb of action. You didn't lay in bed and wait for your clothes to crawl on you this morning.

9:00 You had to get up and go to them and get them on you. Putting on is activity. Now, which is it? Is the presence of love and meekness in the life of a man, is it the work of God, or is it the work of the believer?

9:18 Well, it's not either or, it's both. The fruit of the Spirit is love, put on love. And you find that with all these other graces. The fruit of the Spirit is joy, and yet Philippians 4.4 says, Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, rejoice.

9:34 Of course, this principle is most beautifully stated. both aspects of it in Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13 where the apostle says so then my beloved as you've always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling that is apply yourself consciously and diligently to the outworking of God's saving purposes in your life, with particular reference to the development of these graces of a blameless life. For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Here you have the command to our

10:24 working based upon the fact of God's working. And God's working does not negate our working, and our working does not cancel out his working. They are co-extensive in the life of the believer. Now, it's essential to understand this principle if we are to maintain and increase the fear of God in our hearts. For as we saw a few studies ago, the putting of the fear of God in the heart of a man is distinctly declared to be a sovereign work of God as a distinct blessing of the new covenant. Jeremiah 32 and verse 40, God says, I will put my fear in their hearts that they may

11:15 not depart from me. So someone says, if it's God's work to put his fear in our hearts, then the question how to increase the fear of God is obvious. You've just got to pray and trust the Lord to do it. No, the principle is this. What God declares to be his work in us is to be the concern of the conscious labors and endeavor of the children of God. So then, in our efforts scripturally directed, let us not allow the accusation of legalism and moralism to scare us away from seeking to discover in scripture the specific guidelines which God has given us by

12:02 which we may develop and increase the fear of God in our hearts. Someone asked a Puritan one time why he lived such a precise life, a life where he had constant regard to the principles of Scripture, a life in which he was not a stranger to vows and to biblically oriented rules of living. And he said, sir, you ask me why I live a precise life. My answer is simple.

12:30 I serve a precise God. Why should we be concerned with discovering specific rules and guidelines for maintaining the fear of God? because the God who has made us and the God before whom we walk has given us these principles in order that we might know how better to increase his fear in our hearts. So I hope that takes away any sense that this is self-effort in the sense that we are negating the grace of God.

13:06 No, God alone can put his fear in our hearts. He is working in us to willing to do with his good pleasure. But we must work out with fear and trembling the cultivation and development of that fear. So then that brings us to the second area of our consideration this morning, having considered the general principle, what are the specific directives for maintaining the fear of God in our hearts?

Directive 1: Be Certain of an Interest in the New Covenant

13:32 Directive number one is this. be certain of an interest in the new covenant. Now, by interest, I do not mean a passing inquisitiveness when someone says, well, I'm interested in buying so-and-so's house. Or someone says, yeah, I'm kind of interested in that girl.

13:54 I'm using the term interest in its stricter meaning. It's meaning number two listed in Webster's Dictionary. It means to have a share or a participation in something. Someone says, I have part interest in that business.

14:10 You don't mean that once in a while you go by and look at the show window. You mean you've invested money. If you have part interest in something, you've invested of your substance. Now, the scripture tells us that this matter of the fear of God in the heart is the result of God's working in the new covenant.

14:32 I read to you from Jeremiah 32 and verse 40 where God says I will put my fear into their hearts And as long as you are in a state divorced from the blessings of that covenant as long as you are an unconverted person, as long as you are a man or woman, fellow or girl, who has never come to God through Christ in repentance and faith, pleading no grounds of approach to God but the blood of the everlasting covenant shed for sinners, then Romans 3.18 will continue to be your experience until you die unless you repent.

15:18 For in describing what man is by nature, Paul said there is no fear of God before their eyes. That's what you are by nature. You're one who does not fear God. Oh, you may have a dread of God that drives you from Him, but you don't have that biblical fear that we've been describing week by week.

15:40 That regard of God's character in the glory of His majesty and His goodness, which draws your heart out to Him in love and devotion and desire to please Him. Oh no. You'll have a dread of God. You'll try to push thoughts of God out of your mind.

15:58 you will live with reference to the nitty-gritty of life as though God did not exist. Oh, you may come into a building called a church once a week and go through the form of worship, but you do not live in the fear of God. What God says in His Word about your life, it has no real practical effect upon you in the home, in your thoughts, what you read, what you don't read, what you watch on TV, what you don't watch on TV, what you say, what you don't say, what you listen to, what you don't listen to. No, there's no fear of God before your eyes.

16:32 The fact of who God is and his claims over you is not the dominant governing principle of your life. That's true of every one of us by nature. Many of us can think back with shame of years in which we live that way. Just like the heathen rings off the head of his chicken and sprinkles a little blood on his altar, We rang the head off an hour or two a week and sprinkled it at the foot of some altar in some church and gave a little time and a little money.

17:00 But we lived totally devoid of the fear of God until God arrested us by his grace and put his fear within our hearts. And so the first directive I would submit to you, if you would know the increase of the fear of God, be certain that you have an interest in the new covenant. Be certain that you have come to Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant. Hebrews 12, 24 says, Ye are come unto Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

17:37 It is only as we come to him, saying in the words of the hymn, Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, as we cast ourselves upon Christ for forgiveness and mercy, He then will make good in us all the blessings of that covenant that He sealed with His own precious blood. And child of God, listen to me. As you long for an increase of the fear of God, make your interest in the new covenant the solid ground upon which you stand when you plead for an increase of his fear. When you say, oh God, increase your fear in me,

18:23 what should be the argument that you press before God? It should be this. Lord Jesus, you died as the mediator of the new covenant. And one of the blessings of that covenant is that you would put your fear into my heart.

18:37 Lord Jesus, on the basis of your shed blood, I plead for an increase of your fear. Give me as much of your fear as your blood of the covenant who warrants. That's the thought of Romans 8.32.

18:54 He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How should he not with him freely give us all things? If he died to ratify that covenant, certainly in his life he will give us freely all the benefits of that covenant. And so rule number one for the increase of the fear of God is be certain of an interest in the new covenant.

Directive 2: Feed Your Mind upon the Scriptures in General

19:22 Secondly, feed your mind upon the scriptures in general. Turn, please, to the 19th Psalm.

19:34 Rule number two for increasing the fear of God is feeding one's mind upon the Scriptures in general. The 19th Psalm, as many of you know, is a psalm celebrating the greatness of the two great spheres of divine revelation. God has revealed himself to his creatures. Verses 1 to 6, celebrate the revelation God has made in creation.

20:07 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Verses 7 through to verse 11 are a celebration of the revelation God has made in his word. So you have the revelation in creation, the revelation in scripture. General revelation, special revelation.

20:30 Now, notice what the psalmist does as he's thanking God for special revelation, beginning with verse 7. He says, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. Then he uses another term. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sinful.

20:50 Another term. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. another term the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes the last part of verse 9 the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous all together and in the midst of all these terms describing special revelation the law of the Lord the testimony of the Lord the precepts of the Lord the commandment of the Lord notice the first part of verse 9 the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. What is he saying? He's saying there is such an inseparable relationship between the special revelation God has made in Scripture and the existence of the fear of God, that the

21:41 fear of God can, for all intents and purposes, be used as a synonym for the Word of God. So where he's using all of these terms, the testimonies, the precepts, the commandments, He slips in this other one, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. What does that tell us? It tells us that he who would increase in the fear of God must feed his mind upon the Scriptures in general.

22:12 The word of the Lord is so productive of the fear of the Lord that it may be used as a synonym. But, when a present, vital, extensive relationship to the scriptures begins to wane, you are shriveling up the roots of the fear of God. And you will grow no more in the fear of God than you grow in your understanding of and assimilation of the word of God written. So then the daily necessity of as much exposure to the scripture as possible Both in private, in the family circle as we read the scriptures with our children, with our wives

23:00 And so the necessity of faithful, systematic attendance upon the public preaching and teaching of the word of God For though there are many portions of Scripture which, as far as we can analyze it, have no direct reference to creating and sustaining the fear of God, the overall effect of every truth of Scripture is to feed the fear of God. In one way or another, the man who absorbs the most of Scripture, spiritually assimilates it into his life stream, is the man who will know most of the fear of God. So then, when you're tempted to cut corners on those disciplines by which you are exposing your mind to Scripture,

23:52 Remember, that's the softening up tactics of the devil to move you out of the fear of God. And that always precedes moving you out of the realm of godliness as we saw last week. And if you and I are to be moved out of the realm of godliness, we must first of all abandon his fear. and often the first step of abandoning his fear is cutting corners on either the private or public exposure to the word of God.

24:23 Then don't be surprised if in the pinch, when the pressure's on, and the issue of God's smile or God's frown is the all-important issue, that somehow those things seem very distant. For there's not a Christian who's lived out a year as a true child of God, but won't confess. There are times when God and heaven and the Holy Spirit and Christ and godliness, all of these things can seem so remote and so distant and just a bunch of verbiage. Isn't it true?

24:59 You just sit and you ask yourself, what in the world am I? What in the world do I believe? How can these things really be a part of me and seem so distant from me? Many times if we check into the reason for that state of soul, it's because there has been this erosion of systematic, consistent exposure to the Word of God.

25:25 Not as though you came up to a certain day and you said, all right, from this day forward, the Bible and me will have nothing to do with each other. No, no, it wasn't that at all. Just a little extra pressure that maybe cut corners on my stated time with God. Just a few extra responsibilities the next day, and a few added distractions the next day, until after a week or two of that pattern, you no longer felt your absence from the Scriptures.

25:51 And you no longer were painfully aware of the erosion. And then there was the breakdown in the Christian life and experience. And we say, where did it all happen? It happened here.

Directive 3: Feed Often upon the Fact of Forgiveness

26:02 And so I know no shortcut to maintaining the fear of God, and I set before you as the second guideline and principle then that you and I must feed our minds upon Scripture in general. Thirdly, we must feed our souls upon the forgiveness of God in particular. Remember our study of Psalm 130 in verse 4? The psalmist asked the question in verse 3, O Lord, if thou shouldst mark iniquities, who could stand?

26:35 O God, if you would record every sin I've done, and then summon me into your presence to give an account, who could stand before me? The thought of a holy God who knows everything, calling me the creature to an account for every sin, is enough to make one cry as they shall cry in the day of judgment that the rocks and the mountains might fall upon us. You can only dread a God who marks your sins and will call you into judgment for them. And rightly so, you ought to dread such a God.

27:14 So the psalmist said, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand? And if we can't stand the thought of standing before God, we won't like the thought of walking with God. But he says, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. When I can discover a way of forgiveness in this great God, so that all of his wisdom and justice and holiness and power, raised to infinity, all of those glorious attributes are on my side to produce forgiveness.

27:49 why who cannot help but fear this God with deepest, tenderest fears and worship him with trembling hope and penitential tears. And so the psalmist says, as his mind is filled with the wonder of forgiveness, so his heart is filled with the reality of the fear of God. So I give to you as the third rule for maintaining the fear of God, You must feed your soul upon the forgiveness of God. The measure to which the fact and the wonder of forgiving grace sinks into your soul will be the measure of your fear of God.

28:36 Feed often upon the fact of forgiveness. God who is holy, God who is righteous, God who is called the High and the Lofty One, actually forgives me, the sinful creature? Steep your mind often in the way of forgiveness. Why was there the enfleshment of the second person of the Godhead?

29:01 Why should deity be enclosed in a virgin's womb? Why should he be born in a cow barn? Why should he die that death upon the cross? All that the sons of men might have forgiveness consistent with God holiness his justice his righteousness his inflexible law And as we feed not only upon the fact of forgiveness but the way of forgiveness so our fear of God will be deepened and increased.

29:38 As Manton has so beautifully said, the heart is shy of a condemning God, but it adheres to a pardoning God, and nothing breeds this fear of God to offend him as a tender sense of God's goodness in Jesus Christ. Nothing breeds the fear of God like this tender sense of God's goodness in Jesus Christ. You remember in the 34th Psalm, verse 8, a well-known text, often used as a gospel invitation. The psalmist says, O taste and see that the Lord is good.

30:23 You know what he says in verse 9? O fear the Lord, ye his saints. you cannot fear him as he ought to be feared except it be in the context of his gracious goodness and his condescending mercy in Jesus Christ and so I would entreat you if you would have the fear of God sustained in your heart feed your soul upon God's forgiveness don't allow yourself to come back under the terrors of the law that will drive you from him. But allow yourself to bask in the mystery of his forgiveness and stand amazed

31:10 at such a display of grace that would not only lay hold of you when you were wallowing in your filth, but bear so patiently with you in all of your wanderings and your stumblings. stand amazed before such a display of forgiveness. Rule number four, we must learn to feed our souls not only upon the forgiveness of God, but upon the majestic greatness of God. That is, those aspects of his character which are lofty, particularly his holiness, his power, his omnipotence.

Directive 4: Feed Your Soul upon the Majestic Greatness of God

31:50 Notice this perspective in Hebrews chapter 12, where the subject of reverence and godly fear is before us.

32:03 And we have the exhortation in Hebrews 12 and verse 28. Wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and with godly fear. The American Standard says with reverence and awe, but the marginal reading, godly fear. receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, confident that we are accepted in the Beloved, confident, as he said earlier, that we've come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

32:45 Our sins have been covered in His blood. Confident of His goodness, let us have grace to serve Him acceptably with fear. Why? Verse 29, 4. Our God is a consuming fire.

33:03 So you have the thought of the fear of God bounded on the one hand by the contemplation of all the good things His grace brings, And on the other hand, by the contemplation of the majesty and the greatness of this God, particularly as a God of consuming fire. Infinite holiness, actively opposed to all that is evil. And the fear of God is maintained by the contemplation then of his goodness in forgiveness on the one hand, and his majestic greatness on the other. See the same perspective in the book of the Revelation, chapter 15 and verse 3.

33:53 In this particular vision, John sees this sea of glass. And he sees this multitude of those who've come off triumphant from the conflict with the beast. And verse 3 declares, They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Now notice the attributes of God that are underscored. Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty.

34:30 Righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. Do you see the attributes of God that are in focus?

34:45 great, marvelous, holy, mighty, righteous King. And I know of no better way to describe these than to call them those aspects of God which set before us the majesty of His greatness. And they say as we contemplate this, it's unthinkable that an irrational creature would not fear such a God. Who shall not fear thee, O God?

35:12 If they but know you as you're revealed, They cannot help but fear you. And so the principle for us as God's people is this. Would you grow in the fear of God? Then you must feed your soul upon the majestic greatness of God.

35:31 And specifically, by way of more detailed instruction, let me suggest that you be familiar with those portions of Scripture most calculated to set these concepts before you. The Christian who doesn't periodically read through Isaiah 40 on his knees with breathless wonder, I doubt will maintain much of the fear of God. That passage in which the prophet gives that lofty description of the majestic greatness of God, where he pulls together such imagery as is seldom to be found in any literature. He speaks of the entire expanse of the heavens being but the span of God's hands,

36:17 saying all the nations are like the drop on the side of a bucket, a little bit of a condensation. He speaks of all the multitudes of the nations being like a little swarming mass of grasshoppers. He thinks of God as a great shepherd, and all the galaxies and all the stars as being sheep. And he calls them by their name, and he leads forth the heavenly host.

36:45 Beautiful imagery. What's all this there for? To impress upon us the greatness of our God. For the chapter begins with the command to the messengers of Judah to get up into a high mountain and say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God, look upon him.

37:03 Picture gaze upon him as he's revealed. And so be familiar with such portions as Isaiah 40, Revelation chapter 1. Second specific directive under this general heading. Attach yourself to a ministry which will assist you to maintain lofty views of God.

37:27 Negatively stated, flee from a ministry that encourages you to snuggle up and make cheap love to the deity.

37:37 It's an abomination to God. So much that goes on in his name. Attach yourself to a ministry which assists you to think of him in his majestic greatness. The hymn writer captured it, didn't he?

37:53 Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Savior's brow. All sweetness, unprincipled sentiment. All majesty, too awesome to draw near. But when you have majesty and sweetness, you have the God of the Bible.

38:13 So attach yourself to a ministry which assists you to feed your soul upon his majestic greatness. Read the literature which will assist you to think often upon his greatness. Most of the books turned out in our own day are how-to books. That's what they are.

38:34 How-to. Everything has to do with what we're doing, doing, doing, doing. How to, how to, how to, how to. You can scar the bookshelves in vain to find a book that will set before you who he is.

38:49 So you've got to go back a few years for the most part. Some of us are not just antiquarians when we read old books. is because we find there men whose souls were permeated with these concepts of the majestic greatness of God. And when we enter into those pages, we somehow sense we're breathing the rarefied air of the biblical thought of who God is.

39:17 Acquaint yourselves with the hymnody which does this. We're learning, we sing hymns on our way to church every Sunday. And the hymn we're learning started learning two Sundays ago. There's one in our own hymn book which is tremendous along these lines.

39:33 My God, how wonderful thou art. Thy majesty, how bright. How beautiful thy mercy seat in depths of burning light. How dread are thine eternal years.

39:48 In other words, contemplating that God is a God of eternity. The hymn writer says this becomes a dreadful day. It's something that baffles us. O everlasting Lord, by holy angels, day and night, incessantly adored.

40:05 O how I fear Thee, living God, with deepest, tenderest fears, and worship Thee with trembling hope and penitential tears. Yet I may love thee too, O Lord, almighty as thou art, for thou hast stooped to ask of me the love of my poor heart. You see, that's a hymn that captures this biblical concept of the goodness and the majesty of God, and it's that which feeds his fear in our hearts. Rule number five Seek to cultivate an awareness of his presence Be thou in the fear of God all the day long Since the day is made up of hours spent in the home

Directive 5: Cultivate the Awareness of God's Presence

40:53 In the car The school In the playground In the ball field In the office It's in those places that we must cultivate the awareness of his presence And the best passage that I know of that sets out just how this is done is the 16th Psalm, where the psalmist says in verse 8, I have set the Lord always before me.

41:29 And see what he's saying? He said in every situation, as it were, I plant God before me. So that I realize in that situation, I am in that situation in the presence of God. I have set the Lord always before me.

41:51 He is at my right hand. By contrast, in Psalm 54, 3, when the psalmist is describing the wicked, he says, they have not set God before them. When they go into the office, they don't go into the office saying, God is here. This great God of goodness and forgiveness, this God of holiness and majesty in whose presence I live, He is here to be obeyed, to be loved, to be honored, to be glorified, right in this office.

42:22 Right here, with unreasonable bosses and with flirtatious secretaries. and with nasty recalcitrant companions that I have to work with. Or he's right here in this schoolroom with all these kids that don't give a hoot about my God, don't give a hoot about my standards as I see. He's here to be loved, to be honored, to be confessed, to be obeyed at any cost.

42:48 I have set the Lord before me. The wicked don't do this. He says they set not God before them. They set their own lust before them.

42:56 They set their own ambitions before them. They set their own flexible standards before them, but they don't set God before them. To walk in God's fear is to cultivate this awareness of his presence. For you cannot fear a distant and forgotten God, but a near and a remembered God.

43:19 Practically speaking, this means we ought often to meditate upon Psalm 139. Do you want to cultivate the awareness of His presence? Make it a practice to read off in that psalm. Whither shall I go from thy presence?

43:35 Whither shall I flee from thy Spirit? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. And that sense of the pervasiveness of God's presence.

43:47 Seek to remind yourself in every situation, God is here. I have set the Lord always before me. You got to learn to do this You just can pray now Lord do it for me The psalmist says I have set the Lord before me Well God is there His setting in there didn put him there He was there But it the recognition that he there that becomes the transforming thing in the life

Directive 6: Cultivate the Consciousness of Your Obligations to God

44:14 May God help us then to cultivate this awareness of his presence. Then, rule number six, seek to cultivate the consciousness of your obligations to him. as we saw in our description of the fear of God one indispensable element of it is that in each situation the Christian realizes my relationship to God in this situation is the most important relationship so you're there in school kids and you know to pass that test and get a passing grade you're going to have to cheat but you say there's something more important than my relationship to my grades and to my mom and dad who look at my report card, that's my relationship to the God who has told me thou shalt not steal.

45:01 And that means I shall not steal somebody else's answer. So if you're walking in the fear of God, and before you've gone off to school, you've said, Lord, help me today to walk in your fear. That means when you're tempted to cheat, the recognition of your obligation to God is stronger than that recognition of your obligation obligation to have a nice report card to show mom and dad. It means when my lust and passions cry out and when the remains of my corruption would dictate a course of action contrary to God, if necessary, I must stick my heel in the face of my lust in order that I might be able to look up unembarrassed into the face of my God. The Lord says even if you've got to rupture deep earthly

45:50 ties, he says, don't think I came to send peace. I came to send a sword. I'll set a father against his children, the children against the parents, the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. A man's foe shall be there of his own household. He said, I came to so implant the blessings of the new covenant in the hearts of men that men will so fear me that even if they must rupture the deepest earthly tie, they'll be willing to do it for my sake. He said, that's what I came to do.

Directive 7: Associate Intimately with Those Who Walk in God's Fear

46:18 and part of that in outworking is the people of God cultivating that consciousness of their supreme obligations unto him then the seventh rule and with this I shall close this morning associate yourselves intimately with those who walk in his fear we must have dealings with those who don't fear God in civil matters. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and 10. He says, don't keep company with fornicators and adulterers. He says, now, I don't mean those of the world who are like this. He said, if you're going to do that, you'd have to go out of the world. But he said, in terms

47:03 of the people you select as your intimate friends, you must have contact with those who don't fear God in civil things. You must have surface relationships with them to establish a bridgehead of witness, but Psalm 119.63 is the key text that I would set before you in this matter. The psalmist says, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that observe thy precepts. He said, I have deliberately chosen as my intimate associates those who obviously fear God. Now, why did he do this? The Bible's full of sound psychology, and the

47:49 psalmist understood the psychology of personal relationships. There is a power of imitation, of absorption, of contagion, one individual to another, so that all things being equal, you will become like those with whom you most intimately associate. There's a built-in law, That's why scripture says the companion of fools will become a fool. It's why God warns us about intimate associations with evil men lest we become like them.

48:20 It's part of the way God has made us. We are not encased in our own little individualism. God ordained that man should live in community and part of the operation of that is this built-in power of imitation, absorption, contagion. Now it's in the light of this that David said I am a companion of those that fear thee Lord I would fear you And I know one of the best ways To have your fear increased in my heart Is to become the intimate associate Of others who obviously fear you And so I give to you as rule number seven Associate yourselves intimately With those who walk in his fear It's a wonderful commentary on this principle in Malachi chapter 3.

49:09 Let's look at it for a moment. Malachi chapter 3. The context of this passage is God's indictment toward the great majority in Israel who have turned away from him, not giving him his just due in terms of their offerings, bringing unfit sacrifices. It's a period of decadence when God is sounding forth the note of judgment.

49:41 And yet in the midst of this, verse 16 of Malachi 3, God says, Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another. And the Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that fought upon His name. Here you have that remnant, that nucleus of true Israel who are described as those who fear the Lord, who think upon His name, and because they're in a minority, they recognize the necessity of being sustained in their fear of God by seeking out others who fear Him and banding together in the midst of decadence.

50:27 So with the judgments of God being pronounced, decadence on every side, those who fear God often got together and encouraged one another in their course of fearing God in the midst of decadence. And so I submit to you that if you would grow in his fear, you and I must associate ourselves intimately with those who walk in his fear. no Christian grows and develops the graces of the spirit in isolation. There's no such thing as a freelance Christianity and a do-it-yourself holiness.

51:10 And if you don't know and sense and see how much you need your brethren, you're living in a fool's paradise.

51:25 And you're probably guilty of a delusive pride.

51:31 These people, as they looked out and saw the decadence on every side and knew something of God's fear in their hearts, they knew, look, I'll go down under if I try to make it by myself. Let me find others who fear him. And they speak off one to another.

51:48 What a cursed thing to be deluded into thinking, I can make it on my own. My friend, God may have to humble you with some pretty serious falls to get you to see that the body of Christ is not a luxury for your spiritual development.

52:05 The church is not a luxury. It's not an option if you would grow. It is God's necessary place of growth and development. But the whole thought of a chapter like 1 Corinthians 12.

52:22 Is that to every man is given a manifestation of the spirit to profit with all. The whole thought of Ephesians 4. Is that growth comes in the corporate life of the people of God. So Paul says to Timothy.

52:37 Flee youthful lust. Follow after. And he lists the virtues. And he closes by saying in 2 Timothy 2.22.

52:44 with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Timothy, don't think you'll roll up your sleeves and make it on your own. Find some others who've rolled up their sleeves and are going in the same direction and link arms. And that sometimes when your legs will get weak and your knees will get feeble, you'll thank God you were linked to some arms of some strong-legged creatures going in the same direction.

53:08 Flee this, follow that, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Not a nominal relationship, but a linked arm relationship where you've bound yourself to your brethren. You're in a covenantal life, not only in covenant with God, but with the other members of his body, pledged to care one for another, to pray one for another, forbear one another, honoring one another. All of these phrases from Scripture, and we could quote many, many more.

53:39 What's the thought? The thought is that if we would develop and grow in his fear, we must associate ourselves intimately with those who walk in his fear. A lot of people are, as Christians, like a lot of people in the world today, common law marriages are becoming the thing, you know. They're the in thing.

54:00 They've always been the thing, but it's sort of been an out thing. But now it's the in thing, particularly with the student generation who think marriage as an institution will be passé. And one of the terrible things about common law relationships is the philosophy that undergirds them. Whether they'll admit it or not, here's the philosophy most people have.

54:20 I want all the privileges of marriage with none of its binding responsibilities and obligations. I want to share a bed with you, but the moment something develops where I might have to share myself with you and it'll cost me something, I want out. And I don't want any trouble in getting out. A lot of Christians that way.

54:44 They want all the privileges of the fellowship of the people of God. A stable ministry in the Word, an atmosphere where God is exalted, but they don't want to be so bound that they can slip out the moment the going gets rough.

55:05 Are you a common law Christian? or are you married not only to Christ but to his people?

55:15 Are you? Good question, isn't it?

55:19 Because you see, if you're married to the people of God and you've entered into a covenantal life with them, committing yourself to care one for another, to pray one for another, to exhort one another, then the first problem that comes, you don't go your separate ways. That's one of the great blessings of the institution of marriage that is formalized civilly and publicly. Many of us will confess we face snags in the working out of a marriage relationship that if we hadn't been bound by some deeper ties and just sort of an unwritten agreement that we'd share the same bed together, we'd have gotten out of it. If you're honest, you'll admit that. Many times the things which binds, and it's a principle I always go over with couples when I counsel with them before they marry,

56:05 I say, you convinced this is for Keats. When you say, I do, that's it. You've had it. You're burning the bridges behind you.

56:14 No matter what difficulties you face, one direction you never look is back for the way out of it. You're in it. The only direction you look is up and forward. Up to God for grace and forward to resolve your problems.

56:28 Well, that's the way it is when we bind ourselves with the people of God, for better or for worse. And we're in this together. would you grow in the fear of God then my friend intimately not loosely intimately associate yourselves with those who walk in his fear our time is gone my last rule was so obvious I don't even need to enlarge it fervently pray for the increase of his fear but I trust these principles will be helpful perhaps this next week I can mimeograph them so you can go back over them I tried to be intensely pastoral this morning so that we might not just see this great concept of the fear of God out here as a beautiful, necessary thing, but that day by day and week by week

57:13 it might be said of us, as was said of the churches in Acts 9.31, that they walked in the fear of God and in the consolation of the Holy Ghost and were multiplied. May God grant that we, as a church, shall grow and increase in his fear and in the consolations of the Spirit and see the multiplication of those that the Lord would add to the church. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

57:50 Our Father, be pleased for the sake of your dear Son and in fulfillment of the promises made concerning your work in the new covenant.

58:04 Not only to implant your fear in the hearts of men, but to increase that fear in us. Teach us how to walk in your fear. Teach us how to be in your fear all the day long. To that end, seal the truth that we've considered this morning and give us grace to work it out in the coming days.

58:31 Hear us in our prayer. Send us from this place to sanctify and hallow this day in the consciousness of your eye upon us and in the delight of walking in a way that will be well-pleasing in your sight. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

58:55 Thank you.