Lars Larson Live Stream

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Well, this is about as we've started in a long time. I sent out my notes this morning, probably about a little after 8 a .m.,
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and made a little announcement, little blurb to our recipients.
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We send just right at 200 sets of sermon notes out every week. I don't know how many read them.
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I think well over 100 of those are going to other, and maybe as many as 75, maybe more, are pastors, and they're being used.
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But I was able to notify in this morning's email note that I send out, that because of the, you know, several of the men in our church and their technical proudness with the help of Charlie Kumo that we've been able to establish a streaming video.
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And so they're nine hours different. India, perhaps, there's 12 hours difference. I don't know. I made a comment in my,
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I feel like the Apostle Paul, you know, when he was saying he was, and I perhaps think of those terms somewhat.
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But, you know, thank the Lord we'll be, we'll be producing this video, live video each week in high definition as well.
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And it's cheap. It's free, the software that's been produced. And Charlie Kumo tells me that our church is the first church that has employed or used this new technology.
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And he thinks it's gonna take off because it's so inexpensive. It takes so little computer power and puts out such a good quality product.
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And so the Lord's blessing in ways that are quite amazing. Well, in consideration, in our consideration of the
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Christian's three great enemies, spiritual enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, we've been addressing the matter of the world.
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I think this is the fourth Lord's Day in which we're addressing this. And when we speak of the world as a spiritual enemy of the
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Christian, we're talking about the culture of this falling world with its ideas, values, practices that are in opposition to the will of God.
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We're immersed in the world. We live in the world. And the fallen world, because we're fallen creatures and though redeemed, has influence upon us that's to be resisted and corrected.
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And so the fallen world has its ways of thinking. These ways are often in conflict, even in contradiction with the ways of God.
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And so the world would have us think the way the world thinks. The world would have us put value on those things that it values.
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The world would have us desire what the world offers. The world would have us behave as the world of fallen people behave and live.
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Is asked a number of these and we could go on probably for weeks. We're not going to. But I did think that we have to fill out a little bit the topic that we, the matter of the fear of man and the
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Christian's response to that, of course, seeking to have a fear of God that governs our thinking and our living.
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In other words, or put in other words, it is the will of God that we be motivated and that we act with the desire of gaining
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God's approval rather than man's approval. Basically, that's what the fear of man is. We think and act and even speak because we want people to think highly of us.
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And we'll never get to the point where that's not part of us. And I think it's necessary for a civil society to have that.
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And yet on the other hand, the fear of man is a snare and we are to rather fear
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God rather than fear man. We are to desire
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God's approval rather than man's approval. And this takes some doing at times.
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We showed from the scriptures that the fear of God is characteristic of godly people, but the fear of man, although again, present to a degree in every one of us, is a general characteristic of unconverted people.
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The people of the world are declared in Romans by Paul as having no fear of God before their eyes.
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And last Lord's Day, we gave attention to two biblical figures, John the Baptist, who was characterized by a fear of God and King Herod, who was characterized by a fear of man.
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But again, considering the importance of this subject, it would do us well to explore it further. And so today we want to examine more clearly, fully, what it is to live in the fear of God.
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And so I thought we'd begin by reading Psalm 103. Here we read of King David's devotion to God for all the mercies that God had bestowed upon him.
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He voices in this Psalm on a personal note using the first person, my. In verse one and verse two, he's talking about himself.
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Beginning in verse three, if you look carefully, he changes and he starts addressing you or your.
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He still is one and two, it's me and my. And in verse six and following,
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David broadens his praise of God, including not only himself, but all those like him who praise
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God. So he begins to speak about us and our. And so he broadens it.
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And here we see ourselves included most clearly. And he begins to describe God's people as ones, as those who fear him.
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And then he describes and depicts God's people as those who fear the Lord in the last verses.
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And so let's read Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Again, David speaking, first person, singular.
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And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
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Forget not all his benefits. And now again, when he says, who forgives all your iniquities, he's not talking about you and me or ones he's singing to or writing to.
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He's talking about his own soul, for you my soul. Bring it to remembrance. Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.
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You might ask, how do you know that he's talking about his soul and not a group of people? Because in the
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Hebrew, it's a singular pronoun. He's addressing himself. It's not a plural pronoun.
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Talking to a group of people, he's talking about himself. And so who forgives all your iniquities, my soul, who forgives all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness, tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
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And now he broadens the scope of matters. In verse six. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
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He made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy.
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He'll not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins.
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Thank God for that. Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those, and here's the fear of God, mentioned, those who fear him.
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As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
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As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities, here it is again, those who fear him.
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For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
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For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. And its place remembers it no more, but the mercy of the
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Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those, there it is again, once again, on those who fear him.
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And his righteousness to children's children, to such as keep his covenant, to those who remember his commandments, to do them.
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The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the
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Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voice of his word.
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Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, he's broadening the scope of things, you ministers of his, who do, referring to angels, who do his pleasure.
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Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
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He comes back around, again, talks about himself. And so here we see
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God's people are characterized as those who fear the Lord. And what this simply means is that Christians are people who live to please
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God, rather than live to please man. And this is what our Lord meant when he said, fear not them, which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
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Fear God. We are to love God supremely, strive to become holy in our lives, for this is what pleases
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God. And so Paul encouraged Christians to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
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The fear of the Lord. The point is this, if we desire to become holy in life, to grow closer in fellowship and likeness to our
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Savior, then we will do so through the fear of God. It's very important, therefore, that we develop a biblical sense of the fear of God.
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And understand what it is and what it isn't. The question, then, before us is this, how should we understand the fear of God and how may this grace be developed within us?
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And that's basically what we wanna address this morning in the time we have. And so first, let's consider reasons that we should be characterized by the fear of God, and there are a number of them.
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Why should we fear the Lord? Well, God's blessing is on those who fear
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God. The fear of the Lord is set forth in Holy Scripture in many wonderful and varied ways.
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Very name and nature of God should lead us to fear Him. When you think upon God here within us, the psalmist wrote, holy and reverent is
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His name. And it's with this sense of fear of God that we're to come before Him to worship every
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Lord's Day. I hope that each of us is characterized by this fear of the
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Lord every Lord's Day morning when we come into this place. We're coming into the very presence of God.
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I used an illustration years ago, and I think it's true. Suppose you walked in those doors on Sunday morning.
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Instead of walking into this room, you walked into the very throne room of heaven, and the
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Lord's sitting on the throne, and His visible presence was that right there. His spiritual presence is right here.
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It's just as true and vivid and real as if His physical appearance were right before our eyes.
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And we should develop our souls and our minds and our hearts to think in these terms.
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We truly are in the presence of God. And that ought to impact us, shouldn't it?
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I remember, by the way, it just comes to mind in our church in Germany, in the
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Munich International Community Church where Mary and I were for four years. We had a number of African men and a few women in our church, a dozen at any one time, 15.
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They were asylum seekers. Their family or village would get together, pool money, and then send this man up to Germany, hopefully to be able to make money and then send it back to his family or village.
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It was a very sad thing that when they got up there, however, there was a German war, and they were away from their wives and their children for four years, five years, extended period of time.
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But they had a sense of the reverence of God in some ways, perhaps to an unhealthy degree.
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I mean, when I came into a room, here come foolishly think that somehow when we're alone, we can sin and get away with it.
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God is with us. With whom the darkness and the light are alike in his omnipresence from whence there is no fleeing.
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Where could you flee? Nowhere, for he fills heaven and earth with it. To which may be added the justice and holiness of God which make his majesty the more terrible and to be revered since he's not only excellent in power, but also in judgment and in plenty of justice.
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And a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a just and sin avenging God. The writer to Hebrews was writing to Christians about that.
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It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The everlasting
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King at whose wrath the nations tremble and are not able to bear his indignation. And so these attributes of God are to be seen by faith in the crucified, risen, glorified
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Jesus. John, the apostle who laid his head upon the breast of Jesus at the last supper saw a vision of Jesus in his present glory.
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Revelation one records that. John wrote, I turned to see the voice. He first heard the voice behind him.
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He turned about to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned,
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I saw seven golden lampstands in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the sun of man clothed with a garment down to the feet, girded about the chest with a golden band.
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His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace.
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His voice is the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two -edged sword.
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His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw him,
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I fell at his feet as dead. And that was John, whom he described in his gospel as the disciple whom
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Jesus loved. And so do we see Jesus in faith in his glory when we gather in his name every
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Lord's day? We should. But not only is God to be feared in his attributes and because of them, but the works of God should lead us to fear him.
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One reason we're to fear God is because he's the creator. The psalmist wrote, by the word of the
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Lord, the heavens were made, all the host of them, by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea together as a heap.
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He lays up the deep and storehouses, let all the earth, what's the right response? Fear the
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Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
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Because he's the creator. I bought a book this week and had a little extra time last evening, read about 50 pages in it, written by a biologist who was a
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Christian, but he believed for quite a while in evolution. That's everything he was taught.
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And then he came to realize, six or seven years ago, something was presented to him.
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And it was in a book by Stobel. And he read and he is unseemly in our society.
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We'll go through any grocery check -in stand and see the stuff plastered all over those magazines or whatever it is.
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And people exalt him, there's a celebrity status, a desire, the rich and famous.
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And yet, although God has made such a display of his greatness and goodness to show himself worthy of fear and reverence, people live as though he's a non -entity.
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It's a testimony to the sinfulness of man. John Gill wrote on the passage that we read above in Jeremiah five, the prophet
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Jeremiah instances in what may seem small, yet a most wonderful thing and enough of itself to command in awe of the divine being.
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At the same time, the stupidity of the people is observed, who notwithstanding the goodness of God and his works of providence toward them, yet were wanting in their fear and reverence of him.
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Neither say in their heart, let us now fear the Lord, our God that gives rain. The former latter rain in its season, he reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest, which though common providential blessings, yet are what should engage men to fear the
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Lord and his goodness. And especially God's work of grace should have such an effect upon the hearts of his people as they have when they come with a divine power, particularly the pardoning grace and mercy of God.
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There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. There's that idea again.
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And then we should, because of his judgment upon the wicked, God, so he will be favorable, a lot of kind of motivation.
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Their worship oftentimes is characterized by intricate ritual, reciting of mindless incantations, all designed to alleviate a sense of dread and terror and soothe their conscience, respecting their sin.
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Well, we've done our part. We've been religious. We did our thing. We're okay for another week.
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Aside from superstitious fear, there is an external fear of God. This is the outward show of piety.
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The people of Samaria had this outward, external fear of God.
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They pretended to fear the Lord, Jesus talking to that woman at the well. They had their own priesthood, their own temple, their own scriptures, their own ritual.
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But the Lord said to them, you worship what you know not. He told that woman. The Lord denounced them.
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The Pharisees and scribes. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you're full of extortion and self -indulgence, an outward show of devotion that is not of the heart.
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There is an external fear of God, which is not true fear of God. And then there is a hypocritical fear of God.
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Jesus spoke about those who draw nigh to God with their mouths and honor him with their lips, but their hearts are removed far from him.
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Hypocritical fear. That's not of a Christian.
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And some people go to church, they're clearly hypocrites. And they're not ashamed of it.
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About 15 years ago, there was a man, a business man here in Leinster, who told me at a funeral he goes to the congregational church across the street because that's where the customers are.
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That's why he went to church. Because he knew he could build up his business by going there.
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And then there's a servile fear of God. This is what we might describe as a sense of terror or dread.
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And this should not characterize the Christian. These people serve God not out of love for God, but out of fear of punishment if they fail to do so.
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And so the scriptures describe this as a spirit of bondage to fear. Although many true
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Christians may encounter this kind of fear of God, they need not. They should not think of their relationship with God in these terms.
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For salvation may assure us we're not to fear God in the sense of being terrorized by him. That's the
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God of Islam, by the way. You know, we have an immutable God who's unchanging.
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And so he's made a promise, and we know that he keeps his promise. Islam does not teach that Allah is that kind of God.
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He's capricious. He can be for you today, but change his mind tomorrow. What kind of peace does that bring to the soul?
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Adam, upon sinning, said to God, after God had called to him, I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked.
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I hid myself. That's a servile fear of God. Zechariah, the father of John the
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Baptist, spoke of his son coming to be the forerunner of the Messiah. And God was bringing to realization his promise to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.
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Now, that's not without the fear of God, as we've been describing it, but it's without fear in the sense of being terrorized by God, a sense of servile fear.
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What kind of things cause a sense of the terror of God? What causes this sense of terror to arise in the soul?
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Well, there's a sense of terror before God, which arises due to a sense of sin and a guilt, say, of the conscience, when there's no sense of forgiveness.
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A wicked man, conscious of his guilt, flees when no man pursues. A sense of terror before God arises from the law of God, pressing itself on the conscience of a sinner.
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We've been delivered from the law, not from the law of God as a rule, but from the law as a condemning letter.
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You cannot be condemned by the law of God, because Jesus Christ was condemned in your place, for your having broken the law of God.
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And so the law of God now instructs us and guides us, but the law of God cannot condemn the Christian.
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Thank God for that. Thirdly, a sense of terror before God arises from a fear of death.
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All people have a fear of death. It's just natural to the human condition. They push it out.
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They want to set it aside, occupy their mind with something else, rather than contemplate their mortality.
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Certainly a sense of terror before God arises from a fear of hell and everlasting damnation.
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When the Lord returns, people are gonna be calling on the mountains to fall on them, rocks to fall on them, rather than face the
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Lord Jesus in judgment. That kind of fear is not good for the
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Christian. Thankfully, there is a kind of fear that is good.
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And this is what we've been talking about. We are to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
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Even the Lord Jesus feared his father with this good sense of the fear of God.
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Christ was heard in that he feared, the writer of the Hebrews writes. This is a filial fear, a family fear.
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I tell you what, I was afraid of my dad. Now, sometimes that was physical fear, but it was usually deserved on my part.
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But I always, in all my sin and whatnot, I never rebelled against my dad and mom.
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They just instilled that in me, that I wanted my dad's approval and pleasure.
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This is a filial fear. We desire God's approval and God's pleasure. Well, how then is this true, desirable, good kind of fear of God produced in us?
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And we just slide right through these and then close. First, the fear of the Lord is produced in us by an awareness of our adoption as children of God the
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Father. You know, not everybody in the world are children of God, are they? Bible says you become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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People all over the world who are not Christian and even phony Christians, they pray the
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Lord's prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, they have no authority to do so until they become
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Christians. We become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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John wrote, as many as received him, even to them gave he authority to be the children of God.
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This is what he declared in John chapter one. Those who do not have
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Jesus as Savior do not have God as Father. And it's illegitimate for them to call upon God as Father.
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You can call on God as your creator king and as your judge and as the lawgiver, but he cannot be a loving father until you repent of your sin and believe on the
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Savior, the Son of God. It's our connection to Jesus, the Son of God that enables us to be adopted as children of God.
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And then secondly, the fear of the Lord is produced in us by the love of God that has been placed in our hearts by the
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Holy Spirit. He infuses us, not always, but he does, he infuses us with a sense of love.
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The Holy Spirit, the fear of the Lord is produced in us by true faith and trust in God.
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You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. They go hand in hand. A true fear of the
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Lord is a faith, a confidence, a trusting in the Lord. He will bless those who fear the
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Lord, both small and great. How is the fear of God shown in the life of the believer?
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First, the fear of God is shown, and we're at the top, page nine. The fear of God is shown in hatred of sin.
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The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And that's not so much, you know, that's not just hating evil out there in society.
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It's hating evil most in here. That's what grieves us most, isn't it? The fear of the
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Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance in the evil way. The perverse mouth I hate, wrote
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Solomon. The fear of God is shown in departing from evil. By the fear of the
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Lord, men depart from evil. Be not wise in thine own eyes.
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Fear the Lord and depart from evil. The Christian, the one who fears the Lord, desires no fellowship with evil because he hates it.
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Now, he may be tempted by evil. At times, he may desire evil, be enticed by it. But he knows
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God's view of the matter. He chooses to stand with God separate from evil, opposed to it.
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That is, if he's thinking rightly and is responsive to the grace of God. The fear of God is shown in a refusal to engage in evil activities.
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There's a change in behavior for the one who's characterized by the fear of God. Those who fear the
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Lord no longer run with the old crowd. Now, I remember years ago,
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I was converted, just a couple months in the Lord, and working in the grocery store. And my old college buddy,
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I hadn't seen in months and months, Norm Thurston, came into the store. Hey, Lord, you know, let's go out tonight.
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Sorry, Norm, can't do that. Man, did he look at me puzzled. And I thought, you know, I read the verse.
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They think it's strange that you no longer run with them to the same excessive riot. And Norm thought, you know,
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I heard later their little conversation between my former friends, how I had gone weird on them.
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The fear of God is shown in carefulness not to offend God or other people. We're concerned about that, our attitudes, our words.
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The fear of God is shown in a consistent observance of the worship of God. We're governed by the word of God and our worship of God.
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We're not creative in our worship as Nadab and Abihu with their strange fire. The fear of God is shown in a refusal to withhold anything from God.
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Abraham would not even spare his son. God allowed him to spare it, but he wasn't going to until God intervened.
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And then of course, lastly, the fear of God is shown in a high view and high value of Holy Scripture as the authoritative word of God.
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Isaiah 66, Isaiah is wrapping up his wonderful prophecy. And he records the
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Lord saying, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool, he's the king. Where is the house that you'll build for me?
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Where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made, all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one,
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I will look on him who is poor and of a contrite heart, on him who trembles at my word.
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See, the one who fears God trembles at God's word. He fears God's word too. He wants to know it.
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And it concerns him when he finds himself maybe an error to the word or ignorant of the word.
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He trembles at the word of God. Having a sound biblical fear, the
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Lord will separate us from the world, one of the three great enemies of our soul. The fear of the
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Lord will preserve us so that we not run with the world, which will most certainly be damned on the day of judgment.
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You make yourself a friend of the world, in doing so, you make yourself an enemy of God, is what the scriptures declare.
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May the Lord deliver us from the world. May he give us victory. And that will come forth through a proper biblical fear of God, amen?
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Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would be merciful and gracious to us and produce in each of us, our
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Lord, this true biblical fear for you that will affect how we think and how we govern ourselves both in private and public.
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And so help us, our God, to defeat this enemy of our souls. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.