Evangelical Obedience - Part IV

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-29

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Well this morning we complete our fourth Part looking at Hebrews 12 28 in this matter of evangelical obedience.
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This of course has been in Preparation for the Ten Commandments that will begin next week
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So it's felt a little topical this past month compared to how we normally work through passages together on Sunday morning
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It's gonna still feel a little topical as we work through the Ten Commandments and of course Added to that.
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We're looking forward to Thomas Watson and his exposition as a guidance throughout this time
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So I'll probably make reference to him quite a bit as we'll all in different ways be working through that each week
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Together and then the men will of course gather to talk about that as well of course, we want to keep this matter of evangelical obedience as a guiding light a sort of Lighthouse as we navigate our way through the choppy waters of God's law
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We need to remember that though obedience is demanded by the law We are not under the law as a covenant of works
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In other words the curse of the law for those who are in Christ. Jesus has been lifted We are dead as far as the law is concerned alive in Christ and free by his grace in his blood
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And so we're not under the law as a covenant of works, but rather the laws become our rule of life
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It's a way that as we saw from someone just as Kenny read and as we sang in the third hymn
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It's a way that we are well nourished like a well -watered tree planted by Living waters.
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This is what will cause us to understand the way of God and the will of God to walk in a way That's pleasing to him to serve him
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We do this without dread and yet we do this with reverence and fear and that's our focus this morning
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So Hebrews 12 28 has been a working definition for us of evangelical obedience
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Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Let us have grace by which we may serve
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God acceptably with reverence and godly fear so we're focusing on this last part with reverence and Godly fear this morning.
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We want to look at that in three parts. Of course the topic of godly fear is so Broad we could hardly do justice to it in one morning
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I'm going to suggest a few Aspects of it knowing full well that we won't cover everything
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In fact, there's many other things that are important and belong certainly to any discussion any thought on the fear of God But I want to highlight three things that I think are very practical as we approach
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God's law that is first godly fear is knowing Godly fear is knowing
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Secondly godly fear is hearing and then lastly godly fear is loving
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I think that's perhaps the most difficult and the most important part that we'll discuss together
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Godly fear is knowing godly fear is hearing godly fear is loving.
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So we'll begin first with knowing The fear of God is just that it's the fear of God so it's not a
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Subjective reverence that is sort of drawn up or mustered up and we throw it toward the sky
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Some speculation some imagination of some higher power We don't approach this sort of fear in a way that is ignorant to who
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God is as he's revealed himself The fear of God if it is genuinely the fear of God.
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It is a fear of God a Fear of the Lord God who's made himself known in his word who's made himself known
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Fully and completely in the person of the Lord Jesus. It is an absolute surrender an
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Absolute yielding a wholehearted turning to a dependence upon the
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Lord God We just consider where we've been in Genesis moving toward Exodus in other words as we start reading scripture from the very beginning
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How does this concept of the fear of God begin to emerge in the narrative? Well, we certainly see the the dread fear the terror when the fall plunges this
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Separation between God and man and Adam and Eve run and hide and cover themselves They flee from the presence of God.
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We've seen that terror But then the the fear of God begins to become the stream of holiness
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What John Murray called the soul of godliness fear and we see it emerge with those who call upon the name of the
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Lord These men and women that had a fear for God We saw it with Abraham when he's called out of Ur and even when he puts himself and Fortunately puts his wife in a very difficult position.
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He says the men here in Egypt. They have no fear of God There was something different about Abram and his family.
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They were walking in the fear of God And then of course almost penultimate picture of fear in Genesis is
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Genesis 22 When the promise that had called
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Abram out of Ur the promise of a child of an inheritance of a legacy that would outnumber the sand on the seashore that would rival the stars in the heavens and when that Promise that he sought day by day and week by week month by month year by year
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When that promise finally was fulfilled and his heart was full Overflowing Cascading with the light in this promised one that was now his and then
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God said take him to the mount and sacrifice him to Me and of course, you remember our time looking at that passage
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And the angel the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham. He said here
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I am Do not lay your hand on the lad. Don't do anything to him. Now.
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I know that you fear God Now I know that you fear
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God since you have not withheld your son your only son from me So a very different idea a very different way
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That fearing God connotes in Scripture begins to emerge in the storyline of Abram And as we move forward, of course, we find that that continues.
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What does Jacob call his father? He calls him Isaac and he references him as the fear of Isaac All right if you will be my
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God the God of my father Abraham the fear of Isaac and of course we see in Joseph this tremendous fear of God when his brothers come to him there in Egypt and they they don't know who he is veiled in That disguise and he says go and do this for I am a man that fears
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God So we see this glorious golden thread of the fear of God working through Genesis How did we begin
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Exodus? With these Hebrew midwives Shifra and Pua women that feared
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God Though their bodies were under subjugation by the yoke of Pharaoh They did what they could to spare the lives of Hebrew boys.
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They had a fear for God Do you not know that we are in need of many Shifras and Pua's today in the year 2024?
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Moses was a man that learned how to fear God And that wonderful moment that encounter in Exodus 3 he like Abraham melts his face into the ground in the presence of God Now he has this fear for God now
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He has been called into the service of God now He will go forth and lead the people out of bondage now.
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I know That you fear God in other words now I know that you know me
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Because fearing God is knowing it's knowing who God is It's not an abstract fear.
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It's a personal relational fear. It's a fear that is born by an encounter It's a fear that consists in a relationship
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Now I know that you know, you don't just know about now. I know that you know me
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I know that you fear me. You wouldn't withhold your own beloved son from me
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Well, this was the central focus this episode of genesis 22 For soren kierkegaard.
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I've mentioned him Time here and there. I don't read him as much as I would like to but of course his famous book fear and trembling
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It's taken from philippians 2 12 where he's getting at the nature of faith and he's using the story of abraham's sacrifice in genesis 22 as a picture of what faith looks like and kierkegaard was
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Reacting to the culture of his day a culture that was moving in ever greater lengths away from the the forebears away from that protestant heritage that they had once stood firmly upon and kierkegaard lamented this he wanted to see that faith restored
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No longer the ashes and the fire fireplaces as it were of the higher elites But he wanted to see the fire the real article that real dimension of faith
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And this was in contrast to Perhaps one we could call the father of liberal christianity friedrich schleiermacher
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He puts the liar in schleiermacher It's not spelled that way. But really the father of christian liberalism and this is this is in the late 18th early 19th century when schleiermacher who is in this lutheran stream of protestantism is trying to Find a way to repackage
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Christianity in a way that a modern rationalist mind with with all that materialist rigor could somehow
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See christianity as complementary Anything that would be offensive that just gets lopped off on the procrustean bed of modern modernism and liberalism
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And so for schleiermacher at the very core of his project The fear of god was utterly irreconcilable with the love of god
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And theology no longer could be the domain of what was objective and true in the world to our experience
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But it must be true in a subjective way the interior life of the christian to the mind and to the affection
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So there was this subjective turn toward god and with it An embrace and a fixation on the love of god that cast out any notion of fear any notion of terror
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Any notion of awe or dread before the presence of god? This was the effect of schleiermacher.
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If you think of schleiermacher, I remember doug vickers a dear old saint That's gone on to glory now
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And he always would teach his students little handles and so his handle for schleiermacher was schleiermacher was a fad
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That is f a d because one of his great notions was the feeling of absolute dependence
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And you'll notice what's at the head of that little acronym feeling It's what's subjective what feels good
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What feels warm and fuzzy? That's what we name god What feels scary?
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What's dreadful? That's what we ignore. That's what we want to get away from and so this modern project
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Pitches the love of god against the fear of god. It cannot reconcile them It cannot hold them together and kirkegaard is trying to to say no, of course fear and love belong together
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We don't drum up reverence as I said, we don't muster up fear and then name that god Neither do we ignore fear and nor ignore reverence and focus on the warm fuzzies
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Neither is knowing god and fearing god is knowing him Look at the bale worshipers.
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What do they do at mount carmel? They dance around in circles. They have a rave Like the the sacrilege at the
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Cathedral at canterbury where they're having the church of england is so desperate to retain the next generation
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They're having raves and disco parties in the cathedral Bale worshipers, what do they do?
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They they put themselves in a rave they run in circles. They stir up zeal They have these subjective
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Moments and feelings the sort of awe on that that moment that awe if you ever have gone to a concert
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And you almost feel like your whole body is reverberating with the music and you're sort of caught up on this Higher plateau as it were and bale worshipers can experience that and then they can say we have encountered the divine
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Now we know that bale is now. This is why we serve bale You can stir up godly fear in that way muster it up and project it to the sky and say this is what it's like to know god
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But who actually is a man that fears god in that scenario, is it any of the bale worshipers It's elijah
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Elijah is the man who fears god because elijah is the man that knows god And we live in a culture a society of bale worshipers
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People that know how to whip themselves into a frenzy and they label that experience the experience of the divine
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But they're ignorant their minds are blinded. They do not know the holy one What does paul say of his opponents
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I bear them witness they have zeal Not according to knowledge They don't know him
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And so it's one thing to have zeal in your life to muster up some subjective Sensation and convince yourself that somehow this is what it's like to know in fear god but as we'll see
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Knowing god and fearing god bears out certain fruit. It makes a certain impact in a person's life
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That's what kierkegaard was so concerned in this book fear and trembling. He wanted to see his culture
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The stanish culture that had now rejected the fear of god And with this subjective turn had become more ignorant and superstitious and slavish than ever before and he wanted to get back to the article of faith
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Why it was that those protestants were so rugged They were warriors champions as it were advancing the cause of christ in the world because they understood this notion of the fear of god
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And so We don't allow the bale worshipers Or any other to impose upon our understanding of what the fear of god is or what it looks like it
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It can only come by knowing god Fearing god is knowing him.
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It's a result as we've said of encountering him If you remember some years ago when we were at the church retreat up in manadnock and we were watching the holiness of god sproll
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Referenced another important book by rudolf auto called the idea of the holy and there he gets the idea of encountering god as the holy one
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And what that meant in auto's phrase is encountering god as mysterium tremendum and fascinans
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So so tremendum is the sort of dread the terror That's one way of encountering god lord depart from me.
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I'm a sinful man. It's isaiah saying lord cleanse my lips I am a man of sinful speech dwelling in the midst of a people of sinful speech
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It's that tremendum that terror that awe that dread but then also the fascinans
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You can see our english derivative there the fascination And so tremendum is that which repels us from the encounter with god it fills us with dread with a sense of danger
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But then that that fascinans it's drawing us toward him And we're we're so struck that we we want more of this.
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It's it's dangerous and yet We we somehow know this this is exactly what we need this somehow completes us
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This is some somehow what we were made for to to be in this presence to experience this awe
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We find it in so many splinters and scraps throughout the world whenever you see a glorious sunset
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You're struck by some marvel of creation You find a splinter of that awe of that draw
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Even of that dread when you see the unleashed power of it all And even that then is just a spark as it were of what it's like to encounter the creator of these things
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You come up then against the one who is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself
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And like isaiah you put your hand on your mouth and you say I am not another book very helpful aw tozer the knowledge of the holy
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And he references psalm 36 and says when when the psalmist saw the transgression of the wicked his heart told him the reality
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There's no fear of god before their eyes There is no fear of god before their eyes
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And in saying this he showed us the psychology of sin when men no longer fear god
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They transgress his law without hesitation No thought no concern
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Not even a moment not even a pause of restraint Tozer says the fear of consequences does not deter them at all when the fear of god is gone
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In the old days men of faith were said to walk in the fear of god or to serve the lord with fear
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However intimate their communion with god However bold their life of prayer at the very base of that life was this conception that god was awesome and dreadful
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Right in other words the holiest men and women of old were men and women who were Captivated with this notion of the fear of god
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They had a reverence for god It bore an effect in their life It's why their lives were what they were.
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It's why they prayed in the way that they prayed It's why they lived in such a sacrificial way It's why they were so intimate
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And we we get the scraps from the tables of their devotions and we aspire just to be able to have something
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Of what they're experiencing and relaying to us in their writings Where does that come from?
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the fear of god the fear of god Whenever god appeared to men
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Or women in the bible, of course, the results were the same this overwhelming sense of terror of dread coupled with this drawing
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Invitation this desire to be in the presence and not be cast away abram
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Terrified melting to the ground and yet unable to leave unable to go anywhere else moses in the same way
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Isaiah woe is me, but then send me i'm compelled to go. This is what it's like to encounter god
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It's the scariest place to be but it's the only place you'd be you'd rather be there than anywhere else The fear of god is this deep born control within your life
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Giving ever greater glimpses to the god who is holy who is righteous who is magnificent who is full of all
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And at the same time as calvin would say this knowledge of god this fear which is knowing god also relays into a knowing yourself
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We cannot truly know god unless we're knowing ourselves in that great contrast And the more we know ourselves as sinful
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And helpless the more we can know god as holy and merciful And if this has taken hold in your life in any respect you have taken the first steps toward godly fear and I say advisedly the first steps
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Inevitably fear in the christian's life almost always begins as a servile thing as a slavish thing
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It's a way we try to balance the pendulum We sort of have in any given congregation.
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You have the sort of hippies as it were All right, always praising and admiring the love of god just peace man peace and love just be gracious And then you've got the sort of stalwarts the ones that would even put the puritans to shame
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You know that the stern eye you know the sort of glass regard for holiness
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And a young christian comes into that and they they sort of swing the pendulum between the two They're on this kick of grace and they see maybe their life is slack
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Maybe there's not much fruit. Maybe they're struggling in certain areas. They inevitably turn to sort of a slavish servile fear to the horror of the hippies to the admiration of the puritans
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But then at the same time they go so far in that and it seems so empty and abstract and cold
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And so they sort of pinball back toward the warmth of grace and understand. This is the fuel This is the foundation
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This is the goal of it all and inevitably the christian life takes a while to actually see how these things harmonize together
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Of course i'm making a caricature. I don't actually I wouldn't go as far as hippie and puritan.
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Hopefully we can be hippie puritans if there is such a concoction the godly fear of course
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Is this fear of god? And we're living in a time right now where the fear of god is practically absent
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Practically absent It used to be that the fear of god was such in the churches of this land that it spilled over into society
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It used to be on senate floors or in the halls of congress that a senator could a senator could stand up and say
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Do you not fear god? And that would be enough to silence the opposition But now we have
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Uh men in leadership men like dusty deavers Who are very bold in god fearing and those that pay lip service to god are not willing to fear god in that way
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And so they end up vetoing the very bills that would be toward justice that would be toward righteousness
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That is a problem It means the church has had a negative influence rather than us stirring society toward a reverence for god our maker
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We've actually found the influence of the world and that fearless pride and foolishness to be infecting the church
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There was once a day in this land where at least publicly the fear of god was servile at least
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The churches went out and say you don't have to serve god like a slave out of fear
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You can become his son his daughter. You can be adopted by his spirit. Don't you know his grace?
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Haven't you heard the good news? of the savior jesus christ And many people were taken out of the yoke the bondage of roman catholicism in this very land in this very region of new england
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Because their whole lives had been spent in a servile fear of god until they heard the good news of jesus christ
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And they were liberated from that slavish fear They came to know him by his love by his grace and now they served him not externally but from the very heart as it were
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Now in highlighting that I only mean to say There was a time in this region when publicly just outside on the city streets.
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There was at least a fear of god It was a servile fear But there was a fear of god, but today even professing christians deal flippantly with god
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They're casual about their relationship with god And Pockets of unbelief cultivate this lack of reverence.
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We live in godless Hedonistic days and basically what christianity becomes in such days is a form of religious therapy so part of that turn from schleiermacher's part of that subjective turn was the
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Therapeutic way of looking at religion This is about me having well -being and happiness in my life
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And anything that's negative anything that's harmful anything that encroaches upon that must be
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Rid must be discarded Fear is something that cannot be embraced but for the christian
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Fear is not to be discarded Fear is something to be held by if it's the right fear and we'll come to that toward the end
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We have to make sure it's the right fear Fear is something to be held by because when we're held by that fear it becomes transformed by grace
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We're going to come back to this at the very end So fear is not something to be discarded fear is something to be held by and as we're held by that fear because of god's grace
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It becomes transformative in our lives that fear transforms away from this servile slavish fear
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Into this loving delightful reverence. Okay, that's the key godly fear is knowing god knowing god
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Knowing ourselves The term from hebrews 12 28. It's a it's a rather rare term
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The only other at least the first term this term for reverence The only other time it appears is in first timothy 2 9 and there the idea is modesty
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A gloss could be a blushing face a sort of um A demure a sort of confusion of face would be almost literally the term a confusing of the face
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That's from daniel 7 or from ezra 3 so there's a sort of shame face as it were in this reverence and you see there the idea of reverence is
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There's nothing haughty. There's nothing Triumphant about it. You're serving god As it were with your eyes brought low you're walking very humbly
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Almost blushing almost covering as it were you recognize you're in the presence of something Overwhelmingly Profound and it has this effect upon your life.
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This is what it means to encounter and know god Job 1 1 There was a man in the land of ooze whose name was job and that man was blameless and upright and one who feared god and shunned the evil
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So he went about his life, of course with this fear of god with this reverence
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Toward god and the way he led his home and ordered his family And of course
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I get the time we get to the end of job he fears god in an entirely different way, doesn't he? as a result of what he goes through This fear of god, of course, it incorporates all sorts of things.
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But at root it's it's hating evil Hating evil shunning the way of evil, right?
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We see that with job 1 1 one who feared god and shunned evil You cannot fear god if you don't shun evil
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You haven't known the holy one who is righteous and just if you don't hate all that is sinful and unjust
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To fear is to hate evil proverbs 8 13 says as much the fear of the lord is
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To hate evil and so if we're growing in the knowledge of god if we've actually encountered him We're growing against all the things that are not of god all those things that are against his ways
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To grow in the fear of god because of the knowledge of god means growing in holiness Hating and fleeing from evil when we're tempted to sin
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Even if no one else is watching we remember that god sees and because we know him we fear him we flee the story of joseph, right
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Potiphar's household who's going to know? Hasn't he been through enough? Can't he just sort of clock out?
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Can't he just check out? Joseph doesn't throw a pity party.
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He doesn't say woe is me. He doesn't say i've tried so hard You know, at least it's just this is just something that i'm going to do, you know
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I don't even know if god's been just to me afraid joseph doesn't do that. Why? Because joseph fears god.
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What does he say? When potiphar's wife has him half undressed. What does he say? How could
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I do this evil thing in the sight of god? How could I do it?
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He was a man who had feared god. He was trusting in the god that he had known Even when the god that he has known had led him as it were into the very pit into the very dungeon
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That is the fear of god. It's fearing god Even if the world is against you
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Fearing god even when no one sees That's the fear of god
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Psalm 36 We referenced it with tozer an oracle with my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked.
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There is no fear of god before their eyes The wicked flatters himself in his own eyes when he finds out his iniquity
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The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit. He ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed
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He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not abhor evil so instead of this steadfast
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Walk full of integrity That's seeking the face of god though. No eye sees
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Though the whole world doesn't go in this way to fear god to abhor evil To work hard and suffer as it were for the sake of righteousness
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This is what it means to revere god this is what it looks like to serve god with reverence and godly fear
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God, of course is not greater because we serve him in this way joseph's reverence toward god when joseph reacted in that way out of godly fear it did not add an ounce to the glory of god
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God is not like Us god is not like a human king when servants
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Prostrate themselves before a king it adds to the king's honor it's like I saw this video of uh, the crown prince of uh,
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I think the saudi crown prince and the the caption if this is true was The saudi prince must never be touched
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And I watched this video of trump walking by and patting his shoulder Great diplomacy
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But it's this, you know a power play certainly But that crown prince lost something of his glory, didn't he?
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There's this reverence of he can never be touched No human hand can touch him And so there's sort of this reverence something is added to his honor to his glory
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Well god is not this way Angels that hide their faces burning eternally crying out in praise to the maker.
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They add nothing to his glory Creation that bursts forth in vibrant praise as david says he's sort of the song leader the the choir director of creation he awakens the dawn with worship to the living god and soon all the birds and the whirring of the locusts and the
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The whirring of the wind and the rustling of the leaves all this is now entering into the great corral of worship to yahweh
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Does that add anything to his honor into his glory? It's intrinsic.
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It's inherent He is glorious Our service our reverence our fear of him.
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It does nothing to make him greater than he already is And yet our reverence our godly fear makes us greater
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We've seen this in our own lives. We've known men and women that have been reverent And there's a greatness about them
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Perhaps only christians can discern what that greatness is or whence it comes But we know it's because they have a reverence for god and that reverence has affected their life and they're they're made greater by it
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They hold themselves up as it were with a higher esteem almost effortlessly because they're drawing close to god
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They they hardly can see it. They're still seeing all the stains and the blemishes but to everyone else We think if only we could be that close with the lord god is not greater because we reverence him.
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We are greater Because we reverence him. This is what it means to be human. This is what it means to image god.
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This is our glory Made by god made for god made to be with god.
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And so what's the end of being human? What's the end of the whole matter? What's the conclusion of the whole thing? What are we here for?
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Why were angels made? Why is it a fearful thing that angels were not redeemed the writer of hebrews makes this argument toward the beginning
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He doesn't show grace To the angels. He shows grace to the children of abraham He doesn't show grace to the angels
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They were made to serve him. They were made to adore him They were made for his splendor and in that rebellion god offers them no redemption but to us he gives grace that we might be redeemed that we might be restored and The preacher from ecclesiastes he's looking at the whole purpose of man all the vanity of life as it were that Clouds the ways of man and you boil it all down and say what's it all about?
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What's the purpose of life? Why are we here? What's this for? Why am I going through day to day in this frenzied pace?
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Fear god keep his commandments. That's it. That's all that is all That's the end of the matter let us hear the conclusion he says fear god keep his commandments it's the whole of man
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It's what it means to be human to fear god in the right way to keep his commandments
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So godly fear is knowing Secondly godly fear is hearing
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Which is to say there's a there's a response we encounter this god And he's made himself known he's made his will known we hear that will we must respond to it
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There's a sort of tragic interplay as we work through deuteronomy. We find this repetition
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Of what god desires for his people in deuteronomy 13 17 19 a few times in 31
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You have this constant refrain that they may hear and learn to fear the lord
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Their god that they may hear and learn to fear that they may hear and fear me It's a constant refrain in deuteronomy
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And of course, we know how that tragic tale goes They don't hear they will not hear they stiffen their necks.
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They rebel The writer of hebrews, of course is picking all of this up in hebrews 12 where we've been now for several weeks
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When moses reviews and recounts what it was for the people of god To encounter the lord in his glory at the top of the mountain receive his law.
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This is how he recounts it So it was he says to the people when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness
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When the mountain was burning with fire you came near and all the heads of your tribes and your elders and you said
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Surely the lord our god has shown to us his glory and his greatness And we've heard his voice from the midst of the fire
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We've seen this day that god speaks with man and yet lives now Therefore, why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the lord our god anymore you
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Recognize that from hebrews 12 They cry out we'll die if we keep hearing this voice Who is there of all flesh who's heard the voice of the living god speaking from the midst of the fire as we have?
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And yet lived you go near you hear all the lord Our god has to say tell us all the lord our god says we will hear it.
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We will do it And so that's the the refrain Throughout deuteronomy that you may hear so that you'll do it
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So that you'll fear me And here at the outset moses is reminding them.
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You said you would hear You couldn't bear to hear it and i'm relaying it to you now. I'm mediating it to you now
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Because that encounter with god was so terrifying so dreadful So now as it were with a veiled face hiding that shining glory i'm conveying it to you
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Yes, we'll at least hear that and we'll do it What do they do again in joshua 24 when they make the covenant at shechem?
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And joshua lays it plain before them serve god Fear god serve him in sincerity and truth serve the lord and how does second king 17?
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review the The effects of that covenant shechem through the history of israel
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They would not hear We will hear we will do And we have these fateful summaries in second king 17.
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They would not hear They would not hear They stiffen their necks like the necks of their fathers.
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They did not believe in the lord their god They rejected his commandments. They rejected his covenant.
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He made with his fathers And his testimonies which he had testified against them. They followed idols.
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They became idolaters And so you'll notice in hebrews 12 where we've come now to the mouth
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We've come now to the one who speaks not from earth, but from heaven And the writer of hebrews says to us hear him hear him
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Fearing god is knowing him fearing god is hearing him
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This is what moses said to the children of israel according to act 7 the lord your god will raise up for you A prophet like me from your brethren.
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He's quoting deuteronomy 18 Him you shall hear You've heard my voice moses says
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It's a little effect An effect in the flesh as it were but not an effect to the heart You need a circumcised heart, but a prophet will be raised up from your brethren hear him
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You must hear him This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on mount sinai
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Peter references the same thing in acts 3 21 godly fear is hearing throughout the gospels
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We have jesus saying what? If any man has ears let him hear
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Let him hear me Let him hear my voice. Let him hear my words.
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Let him receive my command. Let him take my will let him follow me The transfiguration in matthew 17 when that bright glorious cloud overshadowed and everything became awash
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As with darkness, but in full light nothing could be seen because of that radiance and they hid their face and the voice
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Booms from heaven and what did it say? This is my beloved son In whom i'm well pleased hear him hear him
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And so the the constant refrain when it comes to the person of christ Whether pointing forward from the mediators and prophets of old or pointing back from the apostles is hear him hear him
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And we come to hebrews 12 and we come to the mount and we come to the judge of all And we come to the spirits of just men made perfect to jesus the mediator of the new covenant
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And what's the very next verse say? See that you do not refuse him who speaks
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See that you hear him see that you do not refuse him What hope could you have if you don't listen to this one who doesn't speak through the veil on the mountain on earth?
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But speaks from heaven by his own spirit through his word What hope could you have if you refuse to hear him?
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And so fearing god is hearing him brothers and sisters for the next two and a half months We're going to be working through the law of god
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See that you do not refuse him who speaks Godly fear is hearing
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Godly fear is walking in this way keeping after these commands paul says in ephesians 4
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Speaking of gentiles who had been ignorant alienated from the life of god because of the ignorance that's in them because of the blindness
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Of their heart that's the predicament. That's the dilemma. Isn't it the blindness the darkness? This heart this heart that's in bondage to sin
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Who being past feeling give themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanliness with greediness
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But he says you've not so learned christ If indeed you have heard him
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If indeed you have heard him jesus says My sheep hear my voice
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My sheep hear my voice that voice from the word refracted by Many different voices and many different languages throughout the world and yet the sheep hear it
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And they encounter him and they know him and they fear him because they hear him
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Have you heard him? Have you so learned christ? Have you trusted in him? Will you hear him
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Will you fear him? well, lastly godly fear is loving and here we have to reconcile what
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Friedrich schleiermacher said we could not reconcile here. We must harmonize what seems so discordant
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The overwhelming terror of god the fear of god the fear of his holiness and yet That perfect love which casts out fear
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How do we harmonize these two things? How do we hold these two things together? Well, of course what must be dealt with is this big problem.
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It's the problem we spoke of last week the problem of our heart It's that which corresponds to a stiff neck.
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It's the blindness of our heart the deadness Of our conscience to be past feeling and given over to lewdness to be spiritually dead to have an uncircumcised heart
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Deuteronomy 5 again the lord. This is moses reviewing and he's recounted that to the people you said you would hear
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And he says the lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me and the lord said I've heard the voice of the words of the people which they've spoken to you
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They're right in all that they've spoken and then the lord says this oh But they had such a heart
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That they would fear me Here are the people Right.
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Moses is reminding them. You said we will hear we will do it. And what does the lord say in response?
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If only you had the heart If only you had the heart to hear if only you had the heart to fear me
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The lord knows that they will fail He knows what happened when he was writing the very law on those stone tablets that looked like their heart
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They were down at the very base of the mountain serving idols walking in the lewdness of their ignorance
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And the lord says If only you had a heart to fear me And so This great summary of the law
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It corresponds to this fear this fear that god is longing to have In the hearts of his people a fear that does not come from our flesh.
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It's not mustered up by our will or by our resolve It's a fear that is born by grace. It's why we say let us have grace by which we may serve god with reverence and godly fear
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And in deuteronomy 10 Moses is giving as it were the the summary of the law the essence of the law
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Now israel What does the lord your god require of you but to fear the lord your god? What does these commandments mean what does this law mean what does the next two and a half months mean for your life?
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What is he requiring of you but to fear him? To walk in all of his ways and to love him
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Schleiermacher says never the twain shall meet we say they're held together right here What does the lord god require of you but to fear him and to love him?
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You say well, which is it? Fear can't be love and love can't be fear and we're forced to reconsider what love and fear really are what they look like What does the lord your god require of you but to fear the lord your god to walk in all of his ways and to love him
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To serve the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul to keep the commandments of the lord and his statutes
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Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the lord Your god also the earth with all that sinned the lord delighted only in your fathers to love them
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He chose their descendants after them you above all people as it is this day. Therefore moses says circumcise your heart
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Don't be stiff -necked any longer Right. He's going right back to the dilemma to the predicament If only they would have that heart to fear me to love me to know me to hear me
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For the lord your god is god of gods and lord of lords the great god mighty and awesome Who shows no partiality takes no bribe but administers justice for the fatherless for the widow
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Loves the stranger gives food and clothing and therefore you should love the stranger You are strangers in the land of egypt.
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You shall fear the lord your god. You shall serve him And to him you shall hold fast
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He's your praise. He's your god who's done these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen
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So you see how moses is recounting the law Fear and love held together
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Now in the modern therapeutic Moralism of christianity. What do we do? We we keep them separate
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And for that reason when a text like this is read if it's not just passed over just to highlight the warm fuzzies
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What happens is that servile fear or maybe that dread maybe that opposition of that flesh
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It fixates and tunes out anything that surrounds this command you shall fear the lord your god
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You see so so our flesh our sense of Kind of I don't know how to feel about that.
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God's demanding this of me For me to serve him and love him in this way and it feels kind of biting
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It feels heavy Here's this command you shall fear the lord your god, uh, can we just We just get past that can we just get to some other things that make me feel warmer and better?
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How can this demand be put on my life? How can this yoke be put on my neck? And so everything else is tuned out and there's this fixation on you shall fear
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That seems so negative You can't hear anything else It took uh, my parents a little late christmas gift to a concert on friday night at mechanics hall and it was a
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The national symphony orchestra of ukraine they were playing a few pieces But what I was really looking forward to was the sixth symphony by jevorak.
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It was one of my favorites right underneath mahler and I had listened to it a little bit and there was this moment that As I was listening to it in preparation to actually hear it
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Played I was I was looking forward to hearing this in in the room When you listen to a recording a cd, you know, no matter how good your speakers are
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You just can't replace the real thing right a photo never does justice to the real thing. So it is with music
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There was this beautiful Part just a tiny little moment. It doesn't last longer than 15 seconds in the second movement
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And jevora had composed this this little four note figure And it's he he's been sort of working it through the whole second movement, but in a very hidden way
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It's somewhat obscured and then there's this one little moment about halfway through where this little figure
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Ends up being played just by the french horn section and it's very weak And it feels sort of hollow and it sort of trails off and fades away.
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So this little four note figure That's disguised as this motif and these four little notes and they're very weak and they're very hollow
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And it sort of fades to nothing but then those same four notes that same figure is taken up by the whole orchestra and every
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Instrument plays that figure and you feel the full power of that motif
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It's been obscure and hidden and now it's radiant now It's blazing and alicey looked up at me and I think
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I must have been sort of misty -eyed and she was very confused She was sitting there, you know playing with tic -tacs
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It was so powerful. It was so beautiful. How did we go from something so empty so hollow fading paltry?
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To something so grand so magnificent so encompassing and that's what it's like here in deuteronomy 10
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If in the flesh all you can see is you shall fear the lord your god
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And it's like these french horns that fade to hollow nothingness Oh, yeah It's that luther before he was converted the fear of god the thing that I dread the thing
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I can't stand the things that makes me flee from him The thing that tempts me to hate him the thing that doesn't get off my back the thing that darkens my countenance the thing that Fills me with nightmares.
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I lose sleep over this You shall fear the lord your god this demand this excruciating weight
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But the christian by god's grace Has seen the harmony It's not this empty hollow thing that fades to nothing
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He sees that this little figure you shall serve You shall fear the lord your god you shall serve him is taken up with all of the glory
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With the full weight of every other voice and instrument shining through The lord your god is god of gods lord of lords mighty and awesome.
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He's your praise. He's your god He's done for you great and awesome things your eyes have seen this. He's kept his promise.
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He's faithful. He's merciful And so all of that takes up what feels so hollow and chafing and empty and now with that glorious grandeur
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We say I will fear the lord my god I will revere him.
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I will serve him That's what it means to have a heart that's been circumcised
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This flesh is taken away Now you know him you know him Now you hear him not as you're running to hide but as you're drawing closer lord
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I want to hear more. I want to know more. I want to see more. I tremble as I draw near My face droops lower.
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My eyes are cast down, but I keep coming to your presence. Holy one This is what it looks like to begin to have this grace transforming servile fear into godly fear
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You'll note the writer of hebrews emphasizes that we may serve him With reverence and godly fear.
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It's an excellent translation godly fear That's the right fear
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And only a christian Only someone who's received this circumcision of the hearts what colossians 2 describes as a circumcision made without hands
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This putting off of the body of sins being crucified as it were with christ. Why we're circumcised with the circumcision of christ raised with him through faith
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And so this is why now we can have a godly fear. What does that godly fear look like? Well, it's not servile.
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It's not slavish. It's not dreadful. It's delightful Blessed is the man who fears the lord who delights greatly in his commandments now you delight in the law
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That you once hated It trusts in him you who fear in the lord trust in the lord.
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He's your help and your shield It's hoping in the mercy. The lord takes pleasure in those who fear him who hope in his mercy
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So even despite our own sinfulness, there's this hope there's this trust. There's this delight. There's this glory
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Now we fear not as slaves but as sons and as daughters of a beloved heavenly father
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Psalm 103 emphasizes this he made known his ways to moses his acts to the children of israel.
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The lord is merciful gracious slow to anger abounding in mercy
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He will not always strive with us according to our sins Nor punish us according to our iniquities for as the heavens are high above the earth
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So great is his mercy toward those who fear him So you have sinful people in need of mercy that are receiving mercy because they fear him
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It's not a fear that has driven them away It's a fear that's drawn them toward So great is his mercy
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Toward those who fear him the lord pities those who fear him He knows we're but dust verse 17.
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The mercy of the lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who Fear him.
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So what kind of fear have we been talking about godly fear? And you need to know this morning whether you have a godly fear
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Or a guilty fear because it makes all the difference in the world
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Having the right fear having a godly fear And not having a servile fear or a guilty fear a fear that drives that repels that hides
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No, no, no not a guilty fear a godly fear it draws It's resplendent.
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It delights. It's something radiant. It's something moving and stirring It knows it hears it desires it delights.
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That's godly fear You know the atheist, uh, bertrand russell. He said all of religion is primarily based on fear
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Okay, he's right But what kind of fear? What kind of fear for russell there's only servile fear there's only slavish fear there's only primitive animalistic fear
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What he doesn't intend is where he's right Religion is based on a godly fear on a godly reverence on a godly knowing on a godly hearing on a godly delight
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And so to make it more plain than perhaps i've made it And this is a if you're looking for another really helpful book a relatively new book rejoice and tremble by michael reeves
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He's a very good writer Uh, it's a little series called a union I believe published by crossway and he has a couple books in that series
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But rejoice and tremble which is on the fear of god. He makes the point. There's a contrast between being afraid of god and fearing god
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And you need to discern in your life if you have neither you're in the worst place If you're past feeling and you're not even afraid of god
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You're you're not even close to where you should be. That isn't even that good But if you're sitting here this morning, you need to distinguish.
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Am I afraid of god? Do I not want to draw close to him? Do I not want to know his ways?
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Am I not? Fascinated am I not thrilled? Do I not delight am I not drawn?
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Can I not sit back and take a sigh and say god you are good You are glorious Could it be that you are afraid of god, but you don't fear god not with godly fear
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Those who have godly fear are not afraid of god They fear god, but they're not afraid of him to whom else shall we go
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Send us lord Better to be A doorknob handler in your house for a day
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Than a thousand years anywhere else So we see this difference and I ask you the question
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Do you have a godly fear? What does charles wesley say in this beautiful hymn arise my soul arise?
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Shake off my guilty fears He recognizes there's a sense of coming to the lord guilty fear has no place
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This servile slavish fear has no place. It is not welcome in his throne room To come to him to come to this kingdom and come to this king's throne.
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You must come like a child Shake off my guilty fears.
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Why? Why can you shake off the the fear of guilt? Being afraid of god.
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Why? the bleeding sacrifice on thy behalf appears His pardoning voice
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I hear he owns me for a child right no longer a slave He owns me for a child.
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Therefore I can no longer fear That's what godly fear looks like Godly fear is this reverence that says i'm in awe i'm blown away in wonder.
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I can no longer be afraid That's godly fear With confidence
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I now draw nigh With desire with delight I draw near to you Paul says it in these words.
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You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear But you receive the spirit of adoption by whom you cry out abba
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Father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit. We are children of god. I know he takes a lot of flack
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Rightfully so well now I I think he's gone to glory Uh, I hope you do too. I hope you're not that stringent
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But he took a lot of flack right rightfully. So in some ways tim keller one of the things I one of the things
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I love that he said was Who dares go to the throne of the king in the middle of the night who dared stir the king?
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All right, what servant has the cojones to go to the throne of god the holy one
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And stir him and bother him No servant could dare think of that way, right
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You think of the story of esther, right? She's putting her life in her hands to go interrupt the king
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Who dares into that's an earthly king who dares interrupt the divine king the holy one?
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and keller says Who but his beloved daughter? All right, who but his beloved daughter who beloved his beloved son?
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All right, the servants are all trembling in fear and that little kid is sort of waltzing up Knocking things over climbing up onto the throne
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We come to him by the spirit of adoption We don't come come to him as slaves.
01:00:04
We come to him as sons and daughters That is godly fear
01:00:11
That's what it means when 1st john 4 18 says there's no fear in love perfect love casts out fear
01:00:19
Perfect love casts out fear. It's it's this verse that throughout church history Saints have been wrestling with how to understand this
01:00:27
John, how could you say something like that? You're We're looking at the word studies here And it's really hard to accommodate what you just said in verse 18 with everything the scriptures have to say about fearing god
01:00:39
Schleiermacher almost wins when he looks at 1st. John 4 18. That's right You know love will eventually cast out fear and we're saying no these things are harmonious
01:00:47
The angels who have no sin are they not full of awe and reverence in the presence of god?
01:00:54
When we are fully cleansed in that day of consummation when we see jesus as he is and are made like unto him
01:01:00
The first fruits of our great hope on that day though All of the guilt is finally stripped away and there's no longer a stinging conscience
01:01:07
And his own blessed nail pierced hand has wiped every tear from our face Do you not think that even then you will have an awe and a wonder and a delight and a reverence for him in other words?
01:01:18
godly fear We'll be like the angels jesus said
01:01:25
Maybe in more ways than one We'll be like them in their delight to do his will effortlessly without question or hesitation
01:01:36
We'll be like them in utter reverence when john Is so amazed just by the angel that he bows down.
01:01:43
What does the angel say get up? You're gonna get us both destroyed. What are you doing? Don't bow to me
01:01:50
And that's a problem is that we show reverence to many lesser things in our lives brother or sister
01:01:56
What do you bow before? If we're to look at your life your walk
01:02:03
What's what's steering it? What's guiding it? What's the utter of reverence in your life? It will be evident.
01:02:10
We can trace what you are revering By how you approach it by how you protect it by how you guard it by how you sacrifice for it
01:02:19
By how you spend yourself on it By how it consumes your thoughts how it Floods your affections
01:02:26
It has that power to make you to break you It can fill you with cheer it can make you despondent like eeyore
01:02:36
What are you revering in your life What are you fearing perfect love casts out fear but you need to remember that this godly fear
01:02:51
Is the fear of god it's not a fear reserved or pointed toward anything else
01:02:59
C .s lewis in his essay the world's last night. He says perfect love we know casts out fear, but so do several other things ignorance alcohol passion stupidity right
01:03:13
So there's a lot of ways to get rid of fear. Look at our society Right. We have more reason to feel safe Than ever before in human history.
01:03:22
There's no human civilization that has been afforded such luxury such convenience Such relative stability and social security than ours
01:03:31
Would you say that people? Are no longer walking with the grip of fear no longer finding a way to cope with fear
01:03:38
Or would you say that now more than ever people are finding ways to cope with fear? We're more stable
01:03:44
More luxuriant than ever before in human history and we're more afraid more riddled with anxiety
01:03:51
More flooded with brokenness and uppers and and drug use and all these escape mechanisms because we're so afraid
01:03:58
And lewis is saying there's many ways to cast out fear We need to make sure that the only thing that casts out fear is the knowledge and love of god
01:04:09
In other words, there is a place for trembling in this life What does first peter say right while you're still here?
01:04:16
Conduct your way or conduct your walk in fear There's a place for that trembling a place for that reverence
01:04:24
When that consummation of perfect love comes that will finally cast out the last shrapnel of guilty fear
01:04:34
But until that day progressively in the christian life We learn how to turn over this instinct this default to the slavish servile fear that causes us to be repelled from the presence of god
01:04:46
To rather receive the grace of god and having that grace of god find this reverence in this fear transformed
01:04:53
To to childlike delight and awe to a drawing close and a drawing near so that we know and hear him in ever more clear ways
01:05:02
This is what it means for perfect love to cast out fear The fullness of that awaits the consummation, but we're meant to experience it from one degree of glory to the next in this life
01:05:12
Are you experiencing that? Are you more compliant than you've ever been?
01:05:19
Has 2024 kicked off in a way that you are more reverential more delighted
01:05:25
More moved by god and his glory than you were in 2022 or 2023 Our fear of god in other words is salutary even when we fall short of perfect love
01:05:40
It's beneficial. It's good. It's necessary At times it's important to work out our salvation with fear and trembling
01:05:47
That's not something antithetical to godly fear that's a path toward it that godly fear
01:05:54
Laying hold of grace becomes transformed into wonder and into delight agustin has this beautiful image he was he perhaps is
01:06:04
The first to attempt in a thoroughgoing way how to harmonize fear and love sort of systematically and He has this beautiful image where he says fear
01:06:15
Even when it's working out in fear and trembling he says fear clears a place for love to inhabit.
01:06:21
This is a beautiful image Fear clears a place for love to inhabit and when love inhabits that place it casts out fear and he says it's like a sewing needle and thread
01:06:37
Fear is like this sharp needle and it pierces And it's uncomfortable and it's dangerous and we don't like it
01:06:46
But unless it has pierced us that thread of love cannot enter in and take up its place
01:06:53
And so that needle passes through And that fear as it were passes through and that fear by grace becomes love
01:07:02
And it passes back the other way fear Becomes love and fear becomes love and the consummation of these things is this the whole garment as it were
01:07:11
Perfect love now complete having fully cast out fear The one true living god infinitely perfect overwhelmingly beautiful in every way
01:07:26
Piercing us with the needle of fear So that love can take hold and take root and bear fruit in our lives
01:07:36
Do you know something of this We fear him
01:07:43
In this way like adopted children delighting in the most loving father We fear him like adoring servants to the most noble and mighty king
01:07:51
We fear him because we consider his righteousness his graciousness his majesty his infinite wonder
01:07:57
We fear him because we love him and we delight to be loved by him
01:08:06
That is godly fear As you work through these next few months as you work through this law of god and these commandments
01:08:16
And these commandments pierce you pay careful heed That the piercing of that fear the piercing of that conscience the pain of that guilt
01:08:28
The sense of that dread the temptation of that repulsion gives way to the drawing cords of his love
01:08:35
Because anything less than that is not godly fear Don't begin with that sense
01:08:42
And fall short of the fullness godly fear inevitably is the love of god
01:08:49
To fear god is to love him And if we do not love him rightly in this flesh in this life
01:08:55
If our love is not at times trembling and overwhelmed with a sense of fear Then what prospect do we have?
01:09:04
Of ever enjoying him and delighting in him For the rest of our existence eternal
01:09:10
This godly love is reverent It eagerly watches to serve god not perfectly but acceptably because it is born by grace
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That's what john newton meant when he said it was grace that taught my heart to fear Grace my fears relieved it was grace that brought that needle of fear into my life
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And it was grace that replaced it with a thread of love Let us have grace then by which we may serve god acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
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Amen Let's pray father.
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Thank you for your word lord. We love you and yet our love is such a paltry infantile thing
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Lord not even a match held up to the son of your love for us lord and We don't delight in your love as we should because we don't reverence you as we should lord we
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Revere and fear and are held by other things in our lives When our lives should be held in the reverence and fear of you
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Lord, we would not have half of that fear. We would not begin the first steps Of fear and trembling and not see it all the way through with eyes of love and wonder of love lord if our fear of you begins like abraham climbing the
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The mount of moriah to sacrifice what was dear to him in this life
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May it end with the beloved bursting with yearning for her bridegroom to come
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Lord may your perfect love cast out any lesser fear. May your grace transform our fears and ennoble them
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And raise them up Make them something of their own kind of their own nature a fear that the world knows nothing of Being ignorant and blind lord a fear that binds us and draws us
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That fixates us upon you with the grandeur and the glory of of every instrument of your word playing at full blast as it were the full testimony of your grace of who you are and out of that lord this
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This great picture for us of why we are to fear you and serve you to love you lord
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We were made by you and for you To whom else could we go whom else in heaven do we have but you?
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So lord help us to love you and to fear you are right Thank you for your son in whose blood were made acceptable
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Thank you lord that in this new covenant You will put fear in our hearts that we may fear you rightly with a godly fear and a godly delight
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Increase that by your own spirit lord increase that work draw us ever closer ever nearer
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We pray may this church be known as a god -fearing church And if there's any in this room this morning young or old
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That have a servile fear a slavish fear a guilty fear A fear that causes them to run to hide to dwell in darkness
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May they be pierced lord with that fear and may it become love Draw them by your grace
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Help them to see your glory and your beauty. Let them testify to your mercy. We ask in jesus name