Fear of the Lord V: Our Good: Behold Your God Podcast

The Fear of the Lord as Filial Awe

Welcome back to the Behold Your God podcast. I'm John Snyder and with me again is my co-pastor and longtime friend Chuck Baggett and we've been talking about the theme of the fear of the Lord and this is based on a series of sermons that you did at the church about a month ago and that we found beneficial so really glad that Chuck was willing to pitch in and and to give us the content for these podcasts.

Now this is actually the fifth of a six-part series and we've been looking at things like the nature of the fear of the Lord and and the command to fear the Lord. And you know and when we use the term fear again we are talking about what you called the filial fear the fear the loving fear of a child the respect of a child for a father.

That really you know we feel I think we feel at a loss to to kind of give a one-sentence definition because it's more than just respect but but it's not the cowering fear. So you know with with big themes like this we could spend a long time but since we don't have a long time maybe it's good to just kind of put some you know edges to a pathway.

You know if you if you move over toward kind of a cowardly fear you're wrong. And you know if you move over toward just like yeah you know he's just like a dad you know well that's something's wrong there.

So we want to stay between those. I think John Bunyan was the one that described it as standing before God in a sense gazing upon him in Scripture with an all-filled reverence. A-W-E I'm filled with awe astonished reverence both from his bigness but also his amazing goodness.

The Fear of the Lord as a Blessing

Now this week and next week we're going to be looking at the fact that the fear of God is a real blessing to us. And we want to use that as the Lord does in the scripture to motivate us to fear the Lord.

And before we look at that just one comment the Puritans often described God as dealing with us as reasonable creatures. So God doesn't wrap chains around the believer and drag us into obedience. And God doesn't stand behind us and shout at us and say this is the path of obedience do it just because I said to do it how often we find in Scripture God giving us a command and following it with arguments.

You know whether these are arguments that describe the misery of going away from him but oftentimes their arguments describing the the unexpected happiness of living for this king in his perfect rule.

So we're looking at some of these arguments under the theme of the fear.

The Lord is a blessing or a gift right. So thinking about the fear of the Lord being a good thing or a blessing to us. I was thinking about how often we're encouraged to to not think about fear is a good thing to face our fears you know try to get over them.

We want to see our children outgrow some of their fears. Some of their fears are really irrational. I guess some of our fears as adults are irrational also. But kids you know fear the dark fear of you know whatever just lots of silly things sometimes.

But then you look in the Bible and you also see commands not to fear. One of the most often repeated commands in Scripture is fear not. And so how can you have that command on one side and on the other commands that clearly tell us to fear God.

And how can it be a good thing to fear God when we also see don't fear. And yet I think if we stop and like you're saying be reasonable for reasonable people we can see that that some fears are rational reasonable and some are irrational.

And to fear God is a reasonable thing it's not unreasonable. And there are things even in the realm of this world you know natural things that it is reasonable to have a healthy fear of not a fear that that forgets God but it's just it's a common sense kind of thing.

We we look at the world around us and there are animals that it's okay to pet. And there are other animals you don't pet. You don't pet rattlesnakes you know you don't pet alligators. And because there's there's danger there.

And we understand that you don't you don't do that. We have laws in place that have consequences and those consequences provide a fear that keeps us from doing some things that we might otherwise do. And it's because those things are in place that we stop at red lights and we don't drive a hundred and twenty miles per hour down the highway.

And so we learn that there are things that are okay to do things that are not okay to do because there are consequences and there is fear. And yet at the same time we look at the Bible and find verses like this.

And this is not a contradiction to what I've just said. But because that's true this is also true in Psalm 128 verse 1 the Bible says how blessed is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways. You know if if we.

If we were under the delusion that that kind of a statement only occurs very occasionally in Scripture then you know we might be forgiven for not really realizing what a happy thing it is for a man to be in the grip of God's greatness and for that that genuine clean fear the Lord to be the product of it.

But really it shows up everywhere. And there's a couple of other passages that you mentioned in your sermons. One is from Psalm 67 verse 7. And notice the connection here between the blessed or the happiest most enviably happy life and and the way we fear the Lord.

Verse 7 says. God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear him. Psalm 112 verse 1. Praise the Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Who greatly delights in his commandments. And. And these are just a couple of examples.

We don't have time to give all of them but frequently we see an intimate connection that the only person that is truly happy in this life is a person also that lives in the in the atmosphere of this healthy fear.

Of the Lord. Yes yes. And as we look at Psalm 128 I think the context of it helps us to understand more of this that God is a source of blessing and that there's a futility of placing your hope anywhere else.

Some writers think that someone 27 and 128 go together because they both deal with that kind of a theme. But somewhat some 128 particularly speaks of us being blessed as we fear the Lord. The word blessed occurs four times in Psalm 128.

The first two times in verse 1 and in verse 2 it is a noun in the New American Standard that I'm looking at in the second occurrence in verse 2 it's translated as happy. But it's the exact same Hebrew word and so happy is a man.

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. The second two times in verse 4 and in verse 5 it is a verb and it is a different word and it is a word that has the idea of pronouncing a blessing. Be blessed now.

I know when you first moved here from Ohio you probably had to learn that in the south we say things some things differently and there are things we say that we really don't mean it may have surprised you.

I don't know to learn that a person could say bless your heart. And they really weren't pronouncing a blessing at all. There was they weren't wishing you. Well but when God pronounces a blessing he is wishing well he's.

He never says that and doesn't mean it. It's never said as a slight when we even when we mean it we can say the words you know bless you. And it's nothing really any weightier than words unless we're actually praying and asking God to bless the person.

And even then we're praying we're dependent upon him to answer that prayer. Our words don't make it so. But every time God says this person will be blessed or blessed is the man who. It's real. There's weight there because there's authority behind those words.

Verse 4 calls attention to this fact that the person who is blessed is that God is doing this. It is a fact behold. For thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. For thus shall the man in this way.

And the word behold is calling attention to this. Look at this and pay attention because God is doing something. It's not just religious talk not just a nice Bible story. But the man will be blessed in the ways that the psalm.

Describes when you think about the word behold it is a command and but it is a sweet command to look at the kindness of the Lord occurring here. It doesn't mean it's an optional command if we don't get this clear in our minds and we leave I think you know we leave a door open to the end for the enemy to come in and lie to us about this whole issue of a life of a God fear and you know and so that will lead to a life that dishonors them.

So we want to take the command here very seriously. Look stop and look. Take a long look. One of the reasons it's required is because things aren't always what they appear. You know a casual look at a Christian's life may not seem to match up with what you've just said from Psalm 128.

So I here I see a Christian and there they carry a burden in some manner and it's not a sin. They're obeying the Lord and in the process of living for the Lord they have embraced a heavy burden. And when you look at them from a distance you think that doesn't look like a happy life.

But if you were to be able to go under the surface to look beyond just appearances to to substance you would be able to see that that person doing that out of love for the king living in with the realities of the bigness of God.

And the you know fearing the Lord that that person really is genuinely happy. And they have an enviable life in the midst of some of the darker spots. And one evidence of this is found in the passages you've been mentioning that these these descriptions of blessing or happiness are all in the plural.

So blessings blessedness is we could say happy's or happiness is here is a life that regardless of what things look like on the surface there is genuinely a happiness upon happiness. Blessings following on the heels of blessings heaped on top of each other.

Because this is a person that walks in the fear of.

The Lord. It's wonderful to think that that God does not give to us stingily you know he gives liberally. We have the father of lights who gives good gifts to his children and he doesn't measure them out with a small measure some 31 I think it's first.

19 says how great is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you. Storehouses of blessings for those who fear him. And it's hard I would imagine for a person who doesn't know the Lord maybe even for a new Christian who hasn't walked down some of the paths that an older Christian has walked to look at a life and think that that person is blessed.

And not really to understand that God gives grace for the burdens that he also gives but he does. And so the person is pronounced blessed by God because he has blessed them. But this blessing in the psalm can be understood in two ways.

In verse 4 God will bless the person who fears him. And you could understand verse 1 in the same way. But you can also understand verse 1 to mean that the fear of the Lord is a blessing. Verse 1 again says how blessed is everyone who fears the Lord or how happy is everyone who fears the Lord.

And so it could be understood this person is blessed or happy because they do fear the Lord the fear of the Lord itself being the blessing. And that's how I understand.

Verse 1 yes and we can look at some different ways that the Bible describes this as a blessing. We'll look at four of them in these last episodes. And the first is that the fear of the Lord is a grace that God gives.

The Fear of the Lord as a Gift of Grace

And now when we say that we don't want to just skirt over that it is a gracious gift it is a gift. But it is a gift that it comes from an unexpected source in the sense that we don't deserve that we would not have expected that the king that we fought against who has freely forgiven us would follow that forgiveness with gift after gift as if we had been good children as if we had been faithful subjects.

But one of the gifts he gives is this fear of the Lord. He gives us a heart that stands in all of him. And we can see this negatively this gift in a negative sense and in a positive sense. So negatively the fear of God is not a plant that grows in the soil of our natural heart.

Apart from God's work in a man or a woman or a child there is no genuine biblical fear of the Lord there sin has you know in a sense uprooted that think of what Paul says in Romans 3. He gives a long list of evidences that everyone needs a Savior you know he's in chapters 1 2 3 he's described different categories of people pagans religious people moral people.

And basically his summary is that every type of man needs a Savior. And he lists the behavior. But at the end of that list of bad behavior he kind of gives you the root or the cause of it all at the end and he says there's no fear the Lord before their eyes.

So they live life as if God is a matter indifferent to God placing themselves in the place of God. And and all of that flows now that being true when God begins to save us the salvation process will generally begin with us being having all those all those nice ideas we have about ourself being stripped away and God showing us the truth about ourself and using the law to expose exactly how far sin has spread into every area of our life.

And how dirty we really are compared to how clean he really is and the judgment we really deserve. And all of that is the beginning of a great mercy he is. It's like a spiritual MRI. He's letting us see the truth about what's on the inside of us.

And God will appear to be a very dreadful and fearful person to us. And and we're not yet brought through you know to the good news. And and we've not yet been brought to that fear that flows out of a happy you know love to God that's forgiveness.

So our advice to you is that when that begins don't mistake that as as some bitter thing that you ought to run from. It's painful but it is it is the kindness of God that is leading you through that chasm of conviction to bring you through to the kind of fear that flows out of forgiveness.

And not just the kind of fear that comes when.

You realize that you're in trouble with the big God. Yes you mentioned that sin has stripped us of whatever natural sense of fear that we ought to have so when we find it there is a filial kind of fear growing in it so that in conviction maybe we're awakened to the terror of God and we want to run.

But then if our hearts are changed and we're brought to God in salvation then there's awakened in us this love for God and I don't want to run from him anymore even though I still hold him in awe in reverence when that comes it is positively a gift of God or a grace that God gives because it is a gift from him.

It is a part of the new covenant. In Jeremiah chapter 32 verses 38 through 41 God says they shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in the land with all my heart and with all my soul.

So those who have been born from above and have been made partakers of this new covenant find that there is a new principle at work in them. He is removed from us a heart of stone of flesh and pardon me and given us a heart of flesh.

And with this new heart this new spirit has been put within us so that we now enjoy a fear of God that we did not enjoy before and I do say enjoy because again we're talking about this filial kind of fear this love.

So previous to that work previous to that work we were held in bondage if we knew any fear at all it was the servile fear. But now we've been given the spirit of adoption by his spirit and introduced to him as our father.

And to this awe that a child should have now while this has been planted in us as believers it is still something to be cultivated and nurtured. But if we if we belong to God it is there and God putting it there again it is a gift he's given it to us but it is also a gift in the sense it is a good thing he's given to us it's not a bad thing he's giving to us again.

Jeremiah he says in this passage I've quoted earlier that he's giving us the fear of God that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them so a good gift from a good father.

So the fear of the Lord.

The kind that is a source of happiness is the kind that only comes in that new covenant relationship. It's it's a free provision. But also we can see that the fear of the Lord is not just a gift that God gives that's good it's a desirable gift.

The Fear of the Lord as a Desirable Gift

And one way we know it's desirable is we have God's opinion of it. You know sometimes people give us something because it's not worth very much and they say well I got a new one and it's really nice. So I'll let you have my old one.

You know you can have this one sometimes I bought friends books before and so I remember one buying one for Lanny Autry and I bought him a really I bought him a nice copy of John Newton's letters to his wife and then I thought I'd like to have a copy and I could read them to my wife so I bought and then well they both came in.

I compared them. I thought well it's a gift you know you can pick which one yet. And I gave Lanny the ugly one and kept the nice one you know to my eternal shame. So the is that the kind of gift is is God just giving us kind of the the leftover and said well yeah well I mean if you want it you can have it.

One way we know the value of a gift is how does the person who gave it to us how does he consider its worth. You know what does God think of this. And we find in scripture that God delights in the in the fear of him God prizes the very gift he's given us.

And so that ought to make us think well if God thinks that highly of it then then I need to make sure I think the same way God does. So let me read a couple of verses from the book of Job Job chapter 1 verse 8 and then chapter 2 verse 3 we read this the Lord said to Satan have you considered my servant Job.

For there is no one like him on the earth a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. Chapter 2 verse 3 we read the Lord said to Satan have you considered my servant Job. For there is no one like him on the earth a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil.

And still he holds fast his integrity although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause. And so we know we know the account of Job and the difficulties God allows Job to go through for Job's good and also to teach us some things we need to know.

But he describes Job as a as a man that he delights in and at the heart of his delight in Job is is this description that Job is a God-fearing man. Now we're not saying that if we fear the Lord enough or if our fear the Lord is clean enough or the right kind you know is it is it pure enough that then somehow we earn his love.

You know we earn his affection his attention. But what we mean is that God finds this a pleasing thing. You remember the prayer that Paul prays for the Colossian Christians in in the book of Colossians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 and he talks.

And one of the things he says there is that he prays that they would live a life pleasing unto the Lord literally in the Greek going out to meet all of his pleasure all of his desires. And at the heart of that it's not earning love but flowing out of a new relationship out of the the heart that you mentioned God places a new heart within me the new birth.

And in the new covenant there is this innate fear of the Lord given and we want to cultivate that. But what flows out of that is a life that is pleasing. And all the things that we read about the fear of the Lord so often it'll say the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil.

The fear of the Lord is against this you know it leads away from all these sins. It leads to a life that God finds pleasure in the greatest example is in the person of his son Jesus Christ. He does not fear the Lord in the sinful way.

He fears God in a perfectly delightful way. And it is at the heart of of this human life that God finds perfect pleasure in. So listen to what Isaiah says in chapter 11 when he describes the coming of Christ.

He says. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding. The spirit of counsel and strength the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Perhaps we haven't thought of Christ as fearing the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord. And he will not judge by what he sees. Nor will he make a decision by what he his ears hear. So in the life of Jesus of Nazareth we know that the Father delights in him.

But we also see that he.

Delights to stand in all of his Father. Right. And so there's this response to the Father. And there's a response of the Father in a sense to the Son. He does delight in the Son he looks at him with pleasure.

Isaiah 42. One says behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen one in whom my soul delights I put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. And during Christ's time upon the earth more than once we hear a voice from heaven saying you're my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

So again and again you have the testimony of God in scripture the testimony of God from heaven saying I'm pleased in him. And so the fear of the Lord is a blessing that he gives. It's something that he prizes.

And if it's something that he prizes it seems right that the child of God who loves the Father wants to cultivate that would want to know more of that because it pleases the Father. Possessing this fear is a blessing.

It's one that he gives and it's a blessing that possessed he prizes. Sadly there are many many people today who do not know the fear of the Lord and do not prize it. But the Christian does have something of it.

It's part of the New Covenant. And having it we should want more of it. We should prize it because he prizes it. How.

Would you answer the question who is God. Would you focus on what he offers. Would you focus on what he promises in behold your God the weight of majesty. Dr. John Snyder answers the question by focusing on God's attributes.

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Second is a sermon from dr. John Snyder pastor of Christ Church New Albany. Lastly our interviews from contemporary Christian pastors and authors who help apply the lessons from the week. To learn more or to see what others say about behold your God the weight of majesty visit media gratia.

The Fear of the Lord in Christian Devotion and Prayer

Org or click the link in the description below. So many passages in Scripture you know one of the biggest themes in Scripture you know is this fear of the Lord. And it ought to entice us to pick up our Bible and say you know starting now if I haven't before I want to begin to just work my way through this scripture and notice how many times this wonderful quality of the believer is mentioned and how is it described.

You know what does it guard me against what does it lead me to. And why is it something that was so delighted in by the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know how privileged am I that God would give it to me.

Well we want to close today with a prayer by Augustus top lady a hymn writer and a preacher from the late 18th century. And top lady writes this infinitely great and infinitely gracious God your glory exceeds our utmost thoughts and your mercies are over all your works.

We your sinful creatures have particular reason to admire and adore not only patience which bears with us despite all that we have done against you but likewise you're never ceasing bounty by which our comforts are continued and our wants are supplied.

We desire to approach you as our kind and merciful father in Christ Jesus humbly beseeching you to wash away our sins in his most precious blood and to give us a sufficient measure of your grace and Holy Spirit to enable us to strive and to prevail against them.