The Transformative Power of the Fear of the Lord
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"Fear was, in previous generations, thought to be a quite natural healthy response to certain situations, but I think it's changed because of our culture of comfort that we feel we have a right to be comfortable. And, therefore, fear is something that we seek to eradicate in every way possible. And so, we do that so we increase our health and safety." [00:02:00]
"And yet, what happens is for all the obsession with making ourselves free of fear, we actually fret even more. And so, it seems that strangely, today, while we are safer, more comfortable than previous generations, we are more anxious. We triple-check our locks and that sort of behavior more than we ever did. We worry about what might happen to our kids." [00:02:56]
"The ultimate reason for that is that we have lost the fear of God in our culture. And the fear of God was a healthy, happy fear that eclipsed and drove out other anxieties. But when the fear of God is increasingly removed from our culture, that's when we find ourselves actually flooded with more anxieties." [00:03:35]
"Sinful fear is the sort of fear that you see Adam had when he sinned in Eden. And what does he do? He is afraid so he hides himself. So, that fear, it comes out of his sin, and his reaction to God is: he is afraid of God and so runs away from God." [00:06:10]
"The fear that Scripture commends, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,' that sort of fear is utterly different. It's a Spirit-wrought fear which instead of making us fleeing from God, makes us flee to God. And this is a, it is a new covenant blessing." [00:07:45]
"The fear of the Lord clearly causes pleasure to saints. So, in Nehemiah 1:11, Nehemiah prays, 'Lord, hear the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your name.' It's a pleasurable thing. And, in fact, here's the height of true fear of God, Isaiah 11 verses 1 to 3, we get a description of the Messiah filled with the Spirit, and we read verse 3, 'And He will be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord and His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.'" [00:11:40]
"So, the fear of God really defines what we mean by both love and joy. Let me put two famous statements together. Ecclesiastes 12, right at the end of Ecclesiastes 12, we read the conclusion, 'The end of the matter; all has been heard,' the preacher says, 'Fear God and keep His commandments, this is the whole duty of man.'" [00:13:11]
"The angels in their worship of God, they bow down with their faces to the ground overwhelmed. We see the seraphim around the throne in Isaiah 6, covering their eyes, overwhelmed. That's a fearful adoration. They are so marveling at who He is that they are undone, and that is the happy fear of the Lord." [00:14:20]
"I had that sort of sinful dread of God and it turned through an encounter with Jesus as compassionate Savior to a place where I just want to hear people talk of Jesus as He is more. Because I find, you know, just doing this now, I find if you're tired, if you're low, if you're spiritually cold, tell me more about Jesus, tell me more about His salvation, tell me more about His grace and kindness, and that's what breathes fresh life into me." [00:17:25]
"To grow as a Christian, to work out your salvation is not to work towards your salvation; it's to work it out, work out from it. That what you're doing is when your heart is turned by the Spirit for the first time, you have some sense of the glory of God for the first time, but it will be a weak sense; you need to grow in that." [00:18:39]
"The glory of God is better than any other pleasure. Knowing this God makes heaven heaven. This is exactly what Paul wrestles with in Philippians 1, isn't it? That it's not that He desires is to be in heaven which will be far better, he desires to be with Christ which is far better. You see clearly for Paul; heaven would not be heaven without Christ." [00:21:42]
"Through such graciousness, I see One who is kinder than I ever dared dream and, therefore, I want to know Him." [00:23:05]
Ask a question about this sermon
"And yet, what happens is for all the obsession with making ourselves free of fear, we actually fret even more. And so, it seems that strangely, today, while we are safer, more comfortable than previous generations, we are more anxious. We triple-check our locks and that sort of behavior more than we ever did. We worry about what might happen to our kids." [00:02:56]
"The ultimate reason for that is that we have lost the fear of God in our culture. And the fear of God was a healthy, happy fear that eclipsed and drove out other anxieties. But when the fear of God is increasingly removed from our culture, that's when we find ourselves actually flooded with more anxieties." [00:03:35]
"Sinful fear is the sort of fear that you see Adam had when he sinned in Eden. And what does he do? He is afraid so he hides himself. So, that fear, it comes out of his sin, and his reaction to God is: he is afraid of God and so runs away from God." [00:06:10]
"The fear that Scripture commends, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,' that sort of fear is utterly different. It's a Spirit-wrought fear which instead of making us fleeing from God, makes us flee to God. And this is a, it is a new covenant blessing." [00:07:45]
"The fear of the Lord clearly causes pleasure to saints. So, in Nehemiah 1:11, Nehemiah prays, 'Lord, hear the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your name.' It's a pleasurable thing. And, in fact, here's the height of true fear of God, Isaiah 11 verses 1 to 3, we get a description of the Messiah filled with the Spirit, and we read verse 3, 'And He will be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord and His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.'" [00:11:40]
"So, the fear of God really defines what we mean by both love and joy. Let me put two famous statements together. Ecclesiastes 12, right at the end of Ecclesiastes 12, we read the conclusion, 'The end of the matter; all has been heard,' the preacher says, 'Fear God and keep His commandments, this is the whole duty of man.'" [00:13:11]
"The angels in their worship of God, they bow down with their faces to the ground overwhelmed. We see the seraphim around the throne in Isaiah 6, covering their eyes, overwhelmed. That's a fearful adoration. They are so marveling at who He is that they are undone, and that is the happy fear of the Lord." [00:14:20]
"I had that sort of sinful dread of God and it turned through an encounter with Jesus as compassionate Savior to a place where I just want to hear people talk of Jesus as He is more. Because I find, you know, just doing this now, I find if you're tired, if you're low, if you're spiritually cold, tell me more about Jesus, tell me more about His salvation, tell me more about His grace and kindness, and that's what breathes fresh life into me." [00:17:25]
"To grow as a Christian, to work out your salvation is not to work towards your salvation; it's to work it out, work out from it. That what you're doing is when your heart is turned by the Spirit for the first time, you have some sense of the glory of God for the first time, but it will be a weak sense; you need to grow in that." [00:18:39]
"The glory of God is better than any other pleasure. Knowing this God makes heaven heaven. This is exactly what Paul wrestles with in Philippians 1, isn't it? That it's not that He desires is to be in heaven which will be far better, he desires to be with Christ which is far better. You see clearly for Paul; heaven would not be heaven without Christ." [00:21:42]
"Through such graciousness, I see One who is kinder than I ever dared dream and, therefore, I want to know Him." [00:23:05]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Apr 01, 2022. Do you have any questions about it?