WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:05.840 We’ve been thinking about thinking for some time. 2 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:12.880 We’ve been thinking about the kinds of thoughts that Christians think and the kinds of thoughts that unbelievers think. 3 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.400 And we’re going to continue that today this morning. 4 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:22.730 And in particular, I want us to be thinking about how we should be thinking about God. 5 00:00:22.730 --> 00:00:32.920 A.W. Tozer once wrote, “What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 6 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:34.930 And I think he’s exactly right. 7 00:00:34.930 --> 00:00:53.300 What what we think about when we begin to think about God is probably one of the most important things that tell us who we really are and is one of the most important things and how we are living our life. 8 00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:58.780 So we got on this idea of thinking a couple of months ago. 9 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:00.420 I guess it’s been a while back. 10 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:15.040 When we started looking at Romans chapter 8 and verse 6, the phrase there is for the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace. 11 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:22.800 And the two categories there, the mindset of the flesh is the mindset of an unbeliever. 12 00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:31.940 And the other category is the mindset of the spirit is the mind that the the mind of a Christian that is controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. 13 00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:45.600 And so I was what I was thinking about is one of the most important phrases that you come across in the Bible that tells us about how we’re to think about God that runs through both testaments. 14 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:47.980 You find it in the Old Testament. 15 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:53.940 You find it multiple times in the New Testament is the phrase the fear of God. 16 00:01:53.940 --> 00:01:58.440 You’re familiar with the verse Job 28:28. 17 00:01:58.440 --> 00:01:59.960 Behold the fear of the Lord. 18 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:03.640 that is wisdom and to turn away from evil is understanding. 19 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:38.180 We’ve heard we remember the psalm that says the fear of the Lord is the is wisdom and we and the proverb that says the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge and it is something that is crucial it’s something foundational in Exodus 20 and verse 20 Moses wrote for God has come in in order to test you and in order that the fear of him may remain with you so that you may not sin. 20 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:47.700 And in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12, we we read, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? 21 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:53.700 But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him.” 22 00:02:53.700 --> 00:03:06.020 So the idea of that passage is is the the fear is one of the basic ideas in that covenant and that covenant relationship with God. 23 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:11.520 So, it’s crucial that we begin to think about what the phrase means. 24 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:17.860 Now, this shows up in lots of sermons because you come across it a lot. 25 00:03:17.860 --> 00:03:23.600 And I was looking through my notes to find the sermon that I preached on the fear of God before. 26 00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:27.930 And I think I discovered that I’ve never preached a sermon on the fear of God before. 27 00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:34.660 And so, but I have talked talked about it multiple times before and I think that’s true of most preachers. 28 00:03:34.660 --> 00:03:41.840 I don’t think you often get a sermon just on this phrase the fear of the Lord and what that means. 29 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:55.600 And one of the things that you do get almost every time when you when anyone is talking about the fear of the Lord is almost always they began by saying it’s really not fear. 30 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:58.820 You know is that what you usually hear? 31 00:03:58.820 --> 00:04:00.080 It’s really not fear. 32 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:07.080 The Fear of God is defined as a profound reverence for God that results in a life that is seeking to please God. 33 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:08.480 Well, that’s true. 34 00:04:08.480 --> 00:04:09.340 It’s true. 35 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.540 But I think it’s secondary. 36 00:04:11.540 --> 00:04:14.110 It’s a second step. 37 00:04:14.110 --> 00:04:24.460 And so, what I want to do this morning is begin to think about the way an unbeliever thinks about God. 38 00:04:24.460 --> 00:04:27.620 Beginning with that, those kinds of thoughts. 39 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:30.100 What is the thoughts of an unbeliever? 40 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:36.480 about God. 41 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:48.020 And when we when we when we go there, we’re going to find that that the unbeliever doesn’t think about God a lot at all. 42 00:04:48.020 --> 00:04:50.120 That’s the norm. 43 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:54.380 Unbelievers tend to not think much about God at all. 44 00:04:54.380 --> 00:04:56.910 That’s true for an awful lot of people. 45 00:04:56.910 --> 00:05:32.520 You You know, I was talking someone with someone this this week and and it you know it just came up and and it and and what I said was it’s it’s typical isn’t it a man goes to work in the morning gets up he he gets ready he’s thinking about his job he goes to work he interacts with the people in his job he tries to do a pretty good job he works all day he comes home he does a few things around the house and then maybe watches television for a couple hours and goes to bed doesn’t think about God at all. 46 00:05:32.520 --> 00:05:34.460 And we occupy our time. 47 00:05:34.460 --> 00:05:39.120 People occupy their time and all of us can occupy our time with all kinds of things. 48 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:46.990 If you watch a television show, when was the last television show you watched that had something truly to do with God. 49 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:48.760 And it’s not that it never happens. 50 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:49.740 It does. 51 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:56.180 We heard an example of ana an accidental thing of that because it was based on a novel from the 1800s. 52 00:05:56.180 --> 00:06:02.900 But the but you do find examples But boy are they rare. 53 00:06:02.900 --> 00:06:09.060 Most of the time when you watch a show or something, you find that there is no reference to God at all. 54 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:12.900 You go through the thing from beginning to end, never have a thought of God. 55 00:06:12.900 --> 00:06:18.200 Same thing is true for just about any magazine that you pick up or the newspaper. 56 00:06:18.200 --> 00:06:20.980 Wasn’t always true of newspapers and magazines. 57 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:25.520 Certainly true of just about all newspapers and magazines today. 58 00:06:25.520 --> 00:06:29.800 You look at these things, you will never think about God. 59 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:35.300 as long as those things occupying your thought and that’s by design. 60 00:06:35.300 --> 00:06:39.560 I mean that’s part of the reason people buy the magazines. 61 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:59.840 People don’t particularly want to think about God and when they do think about God they usually rep push those thoughts aside because there is a kind of fear of God that’s just so so so small. 62 00:06:59.840 --> 00:07:04.120 so small as to be called no fear of God at all. 63 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:12.820 To to see that in the Bible, I I want to read a passage you’re familiar with in Romans chapter 3. 64 00:07:12.820 --> 00:07:18.550 And I’m going to read I’m going to read from verse 9 to verse 19. 65 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.330 10 verses here for short. 66 00:07:21.330 --> 00:07:25.260 And and let me explain Paul’s argument here. 67 00:07:25.260 --> 00:07:33.100 He’s explained that all people basically he’s concluding here that all people of all kinds are guilty before God. 68 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:35.780 Every one of us are sinners before God. 69 00:07:35.780 --> 00:07:39.540 He started with pagans who reject God. 70 00:07:39.540 --> 00:07:47.040 He moves on to people who have a kind of morality and they’re also condemned before God. 71 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:51.940 And then he looked at the Jew with all the special advantages of the Jew in chapter three. 72 00:07:51.940 --> 00:07:53.240 And they do. 73 00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:56.200 God has shown them special grace. 74 00:07:56.200 --> 00:07:59.430 He’s given them and entrusted them with his very word. 75 00:07:59.430 --> 00:08:07.260 He They have experienced great mercy and they have received the law of God. 76 00:08:07.260 --> 00:08:09.660 But what about them themselves? 77 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:13.000 The law that they’ve received from God condemns them. 78 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:14.080 That’s his point. 79 00:08:14.080 --> 00:08:28.960 They’re found in short falling short in so many ways and so much in need of God’s mercy because they are found to be sinful before God. 80 00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:30.000 And that’s what he is doing. 81 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:30.200 Okay. 82 00:08:30.200 --> 00:08:36.220 So in verse n he when he says are we we Jews better? 83 00:08:36.220 --> 00:08:38.200 Are we better than the others? 84 00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:45.900 And he says not at all for we’ve already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all all under sin. 85 00:08:45.900 --> 00:08:50.380 And what he does here next is he starts quoting scripture. 86 00:08:50.380 --> 00:08:54.140 He’s this is scripture and he’s quoting scripture. 87 00:08:54.140 --> 00:08:57.480 He’s quoting from the Old Testament all of these separate things. 88 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:04.480 And and and so he says it is written There’s none righteous, not even one. 89 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:06.720 There’s none who understands. 90 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:09.500 There’s none who seeks for God. 91 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:11.500 All have turned aside together. 92 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:14.040 They have become useless. 93 00:09:14.040 --> 00:09:16.460 There’s none who does good. 94 00:09:16.460 --> 00:09:17.740 There’s not even one. 95 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:29.980 I mean, literally, he’s saying when you start looking around and finding the good person and you start counting all the good people that you’re going to ever count, you’re not going to get to one. 96 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:34.970 There’s not one and their throats isn’t here. 97 00:09:34.970 --> 00:09:39.860 Here he begins to focus on the individual sinner. 98 00:09:39.860 --> 00:09:48.680 And the point is that every aspect of the person is touched by sin in a in a most profound way. 99 00:09:48.680 --> 00:09:51.060 Their throat is an open grave. 100 00:09:51.060 --> 00:09:54.280 Their tongue with their tongues they keep deceiving. 101 00:09:54.280 --> 00:09:57.100 The poison of asps is under their lips. 102 00:09:57.100 --> 00:10:00.960 Remember all of these are Old Testament quotes. 103 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:04.660 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. 104 00:10:04.660 --> 00:10:07.720 So that pretty well takes care of your speech, doesn’t it? 105 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:11.670 All those we don’t speak very well, do we? 106 00:10:11.670 --> 00:10:19.260 When we we we fall great short and our speech is sinful in its nature. 107 00:10:19.260 --> 00:10:22.280 And then their feet are swift to shed blood. 108 00:10:22.280 --> 00:10:29.180 The things that we do and our actions, destruction and misery are in their paths. 109 00:10:29.180 --> 00:10:37.320 We ways that lead us into more sin and the paths of peace they’ve not known. 110 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:40.000 And look verse 18. 111 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:41.760 Why is this? 112 00:10:41.760 --> 00:10:45.400 Why is the nature of people so sinful? 113 00:10:45.400 --> 00:10:50.760 And he says there’s no fear of God before their eyes. 114 00:10:50.760 --> 00:10:52.720 That’s the answer. 115 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.500 They do not fear God. 116 00:10:54.500 --> 00:11:38.260 You know my I think when we start thinking about that phrase, the fear of God, which translates an Old Testament word that means fear and when you get to the New Testament passages translates a New Testament Greek word that means fear and it’s translated with an English word that means fear and I think the place to begin is with fear I think that’s the place to begin when we come to understand who God is and his nature and when we understand who we are and our sinfulness We should begin with a serious understanding that we should be in fear of this God. 117 00:11:38.260 --> 00:11:41.040 We should be fe in fear of this God. 118 00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:45.480 That’s the place of a sinner before God. 119 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:47.560 Do they think that way? 120 00:11:47.560 --> 00:11:49.540 Typically, no. 121 00:11:49.540 --> 00:11:51.220 Not at all. 122 00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:53.560 They don’t think that way at all. 123 00:11:53.560 --> 00:12:00.440 And yet, and yet in the Bible, when people are confronted with God. 124 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:00.920 It’s evident. 125 00:12:00.920 --> 00:12:06.240 It’s evident that God can be terrifying. 126 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:07.750 He is terrifying. 127 00:12:07.750 --> 00:12:14.320 I’m I’m I have to be careful not to get caught up with too many sidrack things. 128 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:18.300 But that word terrifying is interesting to me. 129 00:12:18.300 --> 00:12:20.640 God is terrible. 130 00:12:20.640 --> 00:12:21.740 Terrible. 131 00:12:21.740 --> 00:12:24.220 We don’t like that phrase, do we? 132 00:12:24.220 --> 00:12:24.620 Why? 133 00:12:24.620 --> 00:12:27.960 Because we don’t know what the word terrible means anymore. 134 00:12:27.960 --> 00:13:04.960 We think that terrible means something unpleasant like Alexander who had a terrible no good very bad day terrible as you know broccoli sprouts something I don’t like is terrible terrible originally the idea of terrible means something that causes terror and I want to tell you God is absolely absolutely capable and it does and should cause terror. 135 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:06.320 Terror. 136 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:08.960 We don’t tend to think about God that way, do we? 137 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:13.020 We’re kind of encouraged never to think of God that way. 138 00:13:13.020 --> 00:13:23.640 But when you read the Old and New Testament, so many times you come across places where that is so clear, so clear because God is not like us. 139 00:13:23.640 --> 00:13:25.260 He’s not like another human being. 140 00:13:25.260 --> 00:13:30.600 The way we can tend to think about God, God is altogether different. 141 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:36.080 And he’s perfectly infinitely powerful in all that he is. 142 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:41.900 He’s perfectly holy and righteous and pure in all that he is. 143 00:13:41.900 --> 00:13:47.660 And to come into his presence, it’s a terrifying thing. 144 00:13:47.660 --> 00:13:51.740 I mean, there’s there’s examples of that. 145 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:57.820 Adam, after he sins, he knows God. 146 00:13:57.820 --> 00:14:00.560 He’s been walking with God, enjoying fellowship ship with God. 147 00:14:00.560 --> 00:14:01.920 But now he’s sinned. 148 00:14:01.920 --> 00:14:03.580 And what is he doing? 149 00:14:03.580 --> 00:14:05.020 He’s hiding. 150 00:14:05.020 --> 00:14:07.440 Hiding in the garden. 151 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:08.630 He hides from he’s fear. 152 00:14:08.630 --> 00:14:16.260 He’s his His his sin has caused him to dread God. 153 00:14:16.260 --> 00:14:18.100 The book of Isaiah. 154 00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:27.300 Isaiah is given a vision of God, an incredible vision where he sees God. 155 00:14:27.300 --> 00:14:31.220 And when he’s confronted with the purity of God. 156 00:14:31.220 --> 00:14:40.840 You know the you know the passage, it causes him to say, “Woe is me because I’m a man of unclean lips.” 157 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:45.280 We read about those lips a few moments ago. 158 00:14:45.280 --> 00:14:52.780 I’m a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. 159 00:14:52.780 --> 00:14:56.820 He was terrified. 160 00:14:56.820 --> 00:15:04.560 He he he was totally crushed by the holiness of God. 161 00:15:04.560 --> 00:15:07.640 The Apostle John, and this one is startling. 162 00:15:07.640 --> 00:15:13.500 In the New Testament, you have John the Apostle who walked with Jesus all those days. 163 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:16.880 Among Jesus disciples, John was among the closest. 164 00:15:16.880 --> 00:15:23.220 He’s called the beloved disciple. 165 00:15:23.220 --> 00:15:25.220 John receives a vision. 166 00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:29.040 We the it’s a revelation of Jesus Christ. 167 00:15:29.040 --> 00:15:32.540 It is the book of revelation of Jesus Christ. 168 00:15:32.540 --> 00:15:44.220 And as John sees Jesus, as John meets the glorified Jesus, he falls as a dead man before him. 169 00:15:44.220 --> 00:15:57.500 It’s like, you know, it’s terrifying to be in the presence of the perfectly righteous Jesus and all that he is, the line of the tribe of Judah, and all of his glory. 170 00:15:57.500 --> 00:16:04.440 And he collapses was a dead man before him. 171 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:13.120 Deuteronomy 7:21, “The Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.” 172 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:13.760 Terrible. 173 00:16:13.760 --> 00:16:17.540 That means that he causes terror. 174 00:16:17.540 --> 00:16:20.860 Nehemiah 15, the great and terrible God. 175 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:24.590 Psalm 47:2, the Lord most high and terrible. 176 00:16:24.590 --> 00:16:30.720 That that psalm is describing the nations trembling before God. 177 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:38.960 Psalm 68:35, “Oh God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places.” 178 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:45.200 Daniel 9:4, “The Lord great and the the great and dreadful God.” 179 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:48.560 We don’t use those language, that language to talk about God anymore. 180 00:16:48.560 --> 00:16:51.260 We don’t, you know, God is terrible. 181 00:16:51.260 --> 00:17:03.880 One of the words that we used to use, you can find it in hymns if you go back a hundred years, and you can find it in The Bible, if you look carefully enough for it, is the word awful. 182 00:17:03.880 --> 00:17:06.260 We don’t think of God being awful. 183 00:17:06.260 --> 00:17:06.840 Why? 184 00:17:06.840 --> 00:17:11.160 Because the word awful doesn’t mean awful anymore. 185 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:16.560 The word awful means very bad, something unpleasant, just like terrible. 186 00:17:16.560 --> 00:17:22.180 It’s funny how we’ve pushed those words aside so that we don’t know what they mean anymore. 187 00:17:22.180 --> 00:17:30.660 But awful means co causing something causing you to be filled with Awe. 188 00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:32.240 That’s the idea. 189 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:37.280 And it absolutely is a terrifying thing. 190 00:17:37.280 --> 00:17:48.770 If you could grasp anything true about God that is true about God, any aspect of the any of his attributes, no matter which one, you could pick any of them. 191 00:17:48.770 --> 00:17:59.540 If to comprehend the one attribute is so overwhelming, so overwhelming, it has to lead us to awe. 192 00:17:59.540 --> 00:18:07.200 When you think about the greatness of his power, it has to lead us to incredible awe. 193 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:11.540 He’s way so far beyond us, we can’t comprehend. 194 00:18:11.540 --> 00:18:14.280 Can’t comprehend him at all. 195 00:18:14.280 --> 00:18:21.360 And to comprehend him should lead us to a frightful terror. 196 00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:23.800 People aren’t afraid of God. 197 00:18:23.800 --> 00:18:29.920 Most people have no fear of God at all. 198 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:48.670 They may be afraid of all kinds of things and they are of course they’re they’re afraid of, you know, they’re they’re they’re afraid of um they’re afraid of other people certainly. 199 00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:52.440 It’s why we put locks on our doors, isn’t it? 200 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:59.820 Afraid of people, afraid of all kinds of things, afraid your car might break down on the on the on the interstate. 201 00:18:59.820 --> 00:19:01.920 afraid of all sorts of things. 202 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:06.740 Afraid of afraid of the future. 203 00:19:06.740 --> 00:19:08.360 Afraid of all kinds of things. 204 00:19:08.360 --> 00:19:08.440 But we’re not. 205 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:12.160 We don’t tend to be afraid of God. 206 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:15.220 People don’t tend to be afraid of God. 207 00:19:15.220 --> 00:19:17.660 They should be. 208 00:19:17.660 --> 00:19:20.500 They absolutely should be. 209 00:19:20.500 --> 00:19:36.920 Jesus said that we should not fear those who can kill the body only, but But instead, fear him who after he’s killed has the power to cast into hell. 210 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:39.000 He says, “Fear him.” 211 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:40.440 Fear him. 212 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:42.540 And you know what that word means? 213 00:19:42.540 --> 00:19:48.320 It means fear him. 214 00:19:48.320 --> 00:19:51.880 So people don’t think about that God. 215 00:19:51.880 --> 00:20:04.480 They don’t live their life with him in mind at all because as long as they don’t have to think much about him, They can live comfortably in their way in their little routine. 216 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:25.600 Getting up in the morning, going to their job, coming home and watching a little TV, maybe doing a few things on the internet they shouldn’t and going to bed and then starting their day tomorrow. 217 00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:30.080 As they progress in that, the sin gets worse and worse. 218 00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:41.530 That’s why our society is so corrupt today because we live in a godless society where God is banned banned from our educational system. 219 00:20:41.530 --> 00:20:46.640 Go to send a kid to school and he’s not allowed to think about God. 220 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.300 He’s given no instruction in God. 221 00:20:49.300 --> 00:20:52.940 It was not that way when our country was founded. 222 00:20:52.940 --> 00:20:55.360 It was exactly the opposite. 223 00:20:55.360 --> 00:21:03.540 All education was moral and its instruction, but it was also centered on Jesus Christ and who he is. 224 00:21:03.540 --> 00:21:17.140 Look at the founding documents of our major educational institutions that was originally founded, Harvard or Yale or Princeton. 225 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:22.820 But we live in a godless society where God is not to be thought of. 226 00:21:22.820 --> 00:21:24.540 And what does it lead to? 227 00:21:24.540 --> 00:21:36.040 Well, it leads to more and more people taking delight sometimes in the fact that they think God is not nothing much. 228 00:21:36.040 --> 00:21:37.070 They minimize God. 229 00:21:37.070 --> 00:21:41.980 They think they think very little about him. 230 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:50.550 So they become contemptuous and that contempt multiplies and as their mind is controlled by the flesh, it grows. 231 00:21:50.550 --> 00:21:55.020 There’s a years this is this stuff is old. 232 00:21:55.020 --> 00:22:03.560 What I’m about to tell you is a couple it’s a decade or more old, but a San Diego strip club, a large sign that reads, “We didn’t create sin. 233 00:22:03.560 --> 00:22:07.540 We just perfected it.” 234 00:22:07.540 --> 00:22:19.080 A TV channel boasted about its adult programming guaranteed to break more commandments than any other lineup. 235 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:23.440 You know what they think of God? 236 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:29.900 If they think of God at all, they think that God is such a soft person. 237 00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:33.200 He’s so He loves everybody. 238 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:34.540 Loves everybody. 239 00:22:34.540 --> 00:22:36.980 And he has no standard. 240 00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:40.720 There’s no standard. 241 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:50.140 But God has taken the time in his word to tell us what his moral standard is for us. 242 00:22:50.140 --> 00:22:58.880 He gives it to us in the Old Testament and all those commandments that teach us how to live before him. 243 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:12.200 Teach us what morality is teach us what the holy standard of God is and he expects us to live to up to it not partially but perfectly. 244 00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:13.620 That’s the standard of God. 245 00:23:13.620 --> 00:23:19.600 Jesus said be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. 246 00:23:19.600 --> 00:23:23.020 That’s the standard. 247 00:23:23.020 --> 00:23:35.440 How do you think about a God like that who is so perfectly holy and who calls us to holy holy iness. 248 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:43.380 There’s internet sites there’s there’s a group of internet sites called the Alibi Network. 249 00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:44.420 Have you ever heard of that? 250 00:23:44.420 --> 00:23:51.500 They I’m glad you haven’t. 251 00:23:51.500 --> 00:23:59.520 They they are set up to to help you have an alibi. 252 00:23:59.520 --> 00:24:01.940 when you need it. 253 00:24:01.940 --> 00:24:03.340 And they’re very sophisticated. 254 00:24:03.340 --> 00:24:05.950 They can give you fake travel documents. 255 00:24:05.950 --> 00:24:18.000 They can they set up to make you have this perfect alibi for when you want to spend time doing whatever it is you want to do so that you don’t get caught with it. 256 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:26.340 They will lie for you so that you can commit adultery or whatever else whatever other sin you want to commit. 257 00:24:26.340 --> 00:24:38.220 You just contact the Alibi network and pay the feast and you can have a very convincing alibi. 258 00:24:38.220 --> 00:24:57.780 But every day these people who don’t think of God at all are creating a debt to God that increases moment by moment and day by day for all their life creating a debt that is incomprehensible. 259 00:24:57.780 --> 00:25:11.800 One sin is eternal against God and they multiply sin against sin against sin and they have no fear from the God that they’re offending. 260 00:25:11.800 --> 00:25:14.160 No fear of him. 261 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:29.580 I think the place to begin when we think about the fear of God is to have a big enough understanding of God, the incredibly infinite God that we worship to be able to fear him, to understand who he is. 262 00:25:29.580 --> 00:25:38.580 is and to recognize that a day of judgment is coming. 263 00:25:38.580 --> 00:25:41.740 And God will bring judgment. 264 00:25:41.740 --> 00:25:44.320 He’ll bring judgment. 265 00:25:44.320 --> 00:25:46.240 We need it, don’t we? 266 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:55.240 Everybody knows there needs to be justice done when you think about the sinfulness and the wickedness and the things that happen in the world. 267 00:25:55.240 --> 00:26:01.100 But what happens if God brings justice on all of us? 268 00:26:01.100 --> 00:26:03.940 None of us stand before him. 269 00:26:03.940 --> 00:26:04.660 Why? 270 00:26:04.660 --> 00:26:11.620 Because every one of us is found in Romans 3:10 to 18. 271 00:26:11.620 --> 00:26:14.160 That’s where we began this life. 272 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:17.180 It’s where many of us end this life. 273 00:26:17.180 --> 00:26:20.580 We’re all sinners before God. 274 00:26:20.580 --> 00:26:24.000 Condemned. 275 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:32.580 Condemned under God is the natural state because of our sin. 276 00:26:32.580 --> 00:26:35.580 So we need grace. 277 00:26:35.580 --> 00:26:37.900 We need grace. 278 00:26:37.900 --> 00:26:44.540 Well, that’s the mindset of the flesh and the fear of God. 279 00:26:44.540 --> 00:26:59.640 The contrast with a believer is that they do fear God and that their fear has transformed more like what I was that definition that I read earlier more about reverential awe. 280 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:11.160 But but still with the trembling because God is infinitely great and we are not and he’s infinitely holy. 281 00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:23.660 So when we come to the mindset of the spirit we begin you know with a true vision of God by the grace of God. 282 00:27:23.660 --> 00:27:29.700 God has confronted us with our sin and given us that vision and we recognize our place. 283 00:27:29.700 --> 00:27:31.520 before God. 284 00:27:31.520 --> 00:27:49.800 I remember Jerry Bridges and one of his books was talking about someone had gave him gave him Steven Charox’s books on the attributes of God and he happened to be thinking about and studying the holiness of God at the time. 285 00:27:49.800 --> 00:27:51.240 So what did he do? 286 00:27:51.240 --> 00:28:08.240 He turned to that section on the holiness of God and he you know he had read Isaiah’s vision that I talked about earlier where Isaiah says, you know, I’m lost from a man of unclean lips. 287 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:12.040 I dwell among a people of unclean lips when he’s confronted with the holiness of God. 288 00:28:12.040 --> 00:28:32.760 Well, as as Bridges reads what Char wrote a couple hundred years ago, as he’s reading that, he’s just brought to his knee is he recognized he’s a he’s a believer. 289 00:28:32.760 --> 00:28:44.520 He’s a Christian and he recognized the sinfulness of his life when he when he’s confronted with how incredibly holy God is as Sho begins to explain the holiness of God. 290 00:28:44.520 --> 00:28:48.320 He recognizes how far short he falls of that. 291 00:28:48.320 --> 00:28:51.600 And so he’s on his knees repenting of his sin. 292 00:28:51.600 --> 00:28:54.960 And then finally he gets up and reads some more. 293 00:28:54.960 --> 00:29:00.740 And then he’s on his knees again repenting of his sin. 294 00:29:00.740 --> 00:29:10.680 And he says he says that’s a nano experience of what Isaiah experienced. 295 00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:42.240 He he he says you know we use he says those words we use he said when you start hearing about computers he says first you heard about micro you know a micro second which is a very small thing and then and then you began to hear about you know as microprocessors and micro seconds and then you heard finally about nanoconds and a nancond is 1 billionth of a second. 296 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:56.100 He says my experience with char was probably 1 billionth of what Isaiah experienced when he got a true vision of what God is like. 297 00:29:56.100 --> 00:30:05.320 You know when we realize what it’s going to be like to be in the presence of God It it should absolutely bring us to a knees and we need that vision. 298 00:30:05.320 --> 00:30:08.100 Otherwise, we’ll never be humble before God. 299 00:30:08.100 --> 00:30:11.600 We need that vision of God’s holiness. 300 00:30:11.600 --> 00:30:15.680 We need that vision of God’s perfection. 301 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:19.520 And then it leads us to our knees, doesn’t it? 302 00:30:19.520 --> 00:30:26.020 It causes us to repent, to turn to him, to seek his forgiveness, his righteousness. 303 00:30:26.020 --> 00:30:30.780 And it’s then we can begin to see what Christ has done for us. 304 00:30:30.780 --> 00:30:35.240 See what the love of God has done for us. 305 00:30:35.240 --> 00:31:08.900 When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, because of Christ’s perfect work on the cross, because of that perfect work where Christ gave us his righteousness, but first took upon himself our sinfulness, paid that sin debt, took the condemnation that we deserved, paid that debt, that and paid it fully completely satisfying it before the father so that the father is satisfied when he looks at us. 306 00:31:08.900 --> 00:31:15.560 He sees no more sin in us because Christ has paid that sin debt. 307 00:31:15.560 --> 00:31:27.700 We’ve been reading Romans 8 so many times and a few times we’ve gone back to verse one where it says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 308 00:31:27.700 --> 00:31:38.620 That means It’s right to fear and understand the awesomeness of God, but you don’t as a believer who is in Jesus Christ. 309 00:31:38.620 --> 00:31:47.780 If you’re in Jesus Christ, if you’ve put your trust in him, you’re trusting the sacrifice that he has done in your place and you and God sees you in Christ. 310 00:31:47.780 --> 00:32:01.320 If God sees you in Christ, then you don’t have to fear condemnation or judgment or stand before him on that great day because Christ has borne that wrath. 311 00:32:01.320 --> 00:32:07.400 You don’t have to be afraid of that ever again. 312 00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:11.960 You don’t have to be afraid of God as your judge. 313 00:32:11.960 --> 00:32:14.680 So, what is the fear of God for the believer? 314 00:32:14.680 --> 00:32:29.090 Let me I’m I’m going to conclude with this, but we’re going to do the Lord’s table this morning, but I I think a good place to to see this is in in 2 Corinthians. 315 00:32:29.090 --> 00:32:31.940 Chapter 7. 316 00:32:31.940 --> 00:32:36.840 Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 in your Bible. 317 00:32:36.840 --> 00:32:44.860 See if I can do that. 318 00:32:44.860 --> 00:32:46.180 I’m going to read verse one. 319 00:32:46.180 --> 00:32:47.500 One here. 320 00:32:47.500 --> 00:32:49.540 Verse one of 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 321 00:32:49.540 --> 00:32:59.530 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 322 00:32:59.530 --> 00:33:00.540 All right. 323 00:33:00.540 --> 00:33:06.760 Do you know where you have to begin with this verse with that word therefore? 324 00:33:06.760 --> 00:33:09.260 For this reason. 325 00:33:09.260 --> 00:33:13.300 For this reason, having these promises. 326 00:33:13.300 --> 00:33:15.240 Well, what promises? 327 00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:17.580 We’ll look back just a little bit. 328 00:33:17.580 --> 00:33:27.180 Look back toward that last part of 2 Corinthians 6. 329 00:33:27.180 --> 00:33:34.440 Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. 330 00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:38.400 This is the covenant promise of God for people who are in Christ. 331 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:40.680 I will dwell in them and walk among them. 332 00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:44.160 I will be their God and they shall be my people. 333 00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:50.040 Therefore, come out from a midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean. 334 00:33:50.040 --> 00:33:59.660 And I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. 335 00:33:59.660 --> 00:34:05.940 Well, think about that mighty God who can crush nations, galaxies. 336 00:34:05.940 --> 00:34:09.320 It’s nothing. 337 00:34:09.320 --> 00:34:12.360 Think about the power of God. 338 00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:18.320 And then think about that God being your father and you’re his son. 339 00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:20.100 You’re his precious daughter. 340 00:34:20.100 --> 00:34:23.300 And he loves you with a mighty love. 341 00:34:23.300 --> 00:34:26.820 How differently that power seems, doesn’t it? 342 00:34:26.820 --> 00:34:43.260 How how great what a great difference that is when you know he the shepherd’s rod and the shepherd’s staff are a terrifying thing to the one who wants to to invade the sheepfold to steal the sheep. 343 00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:48.480 But for the sheep, what comfort they are. 344 00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:52.860 The mighty power of God becomes the greatest comfort to us. 345 00:34:52.860 --> 00:34:54.760 So sweet. 346 00:34:54.760 --> 00:35:01.640 Such a blessed place to be to be in the care of such a loving father. 347 00:35:01.640 --> 00:35:10.500 So because of these promises, because we are like a son, we should be sons and daughters to the such a a great father. 348 00:35:10.500 --> 00:35:17.220 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse oursel from all definement of flesh. 349 00:35:17.220 --> 00:35:20.000 Put aside all that stuff. 350 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:21.970 You don’t need it. 351 00:35:21.970 --> 00:35:29.510 The the things in this world that draw you and those things that happen in your mind, set them aside. 352 00:35:29.510 --> 00:35:31.940 God, you don’t need it. 353 00:35:31.940 --> 00:35:34.180 Perfecting holiness. 354 00:35:34.180 --> 00:35:34.860 Yes. 355 00:35:34.860 --> 00:35:46.980 In the fear of the Lord, not fear of his judgment, but just the awesome nature of his presence and to know him. 356 00:35:46.980 --> 00:35:49.360 You know why we can do that? 357 00:35:49.360 --> 00:35:54.480 We can do that just and only because of what Christ has done for us. 358 00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:59.180 Our precious Lord who gave himself on the cross for us. 359 00:35:59.180 --> 00:36:01.020 That’s why we can do that. 360 00:36:01.020 --> 00:36:07.200 That’s the That’s the change in our relationship with him. 361 00:36:07.200 --> 00:36:09.160 That makes all the difference. 362 00:36:09.160 --> 00:36:10.700 It makes all the difference. 363 00:36:10.700 --> 00:36:12.740 We celebrate that this morning. 364 00:36:12.740 --> 00:36:36.980 And when you come to the Lord’s table, we celebrate what Jesus Christ has done for us to love us with an unfathomable love, a mighty love where he takes his own body and uses his body to pay the sin debt that we owe before God. 365 00:36:36.980 --> 00:36:55.280 Has it broken on the cross so that we wouldn’t be broken eternally before God estranged from his presence so that we can have a loving relationship with the father forever and ever. 366 00:36:55.280 --> 00:37:00.800 His blood was poured out on the cross to give us life. 367 00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:03.200 We celebrate that this morning. 368 00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:15.760 I’m going to ask the men to come and I’m going to pray for us and I’m going to ask them as I pray I would like the men to come to so that we can celebrate the Lord’s table, the bread and the cup. 369 00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:22.360 If you have trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then it’s your right to share in this table. 370 00:37:22.360 --> 00:37:27.760 If not, we would ask that you restrain from the table. 371 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:28.660 Let me pray. 372 00:37:28.660 --> 00:37:36.120 Father, I’m so overwhelmed when I think of your greatness and the infinite power that you have. 373 00:37:36.120 --> 00:38:21.300 And Father, when I see myself before you and recognize how undeserving I am, I can but wonder that you you have such a love for us that you would give in such a way to give your only begotten son to see him crushed before you in order to pay her sin debt so that we can call you a father so that we can own you as our as our lord as our father and father we thank you that as we reflect on this that you truly you truly have changed our heart. 374 00:38:21.300 --> 00:38:24.360 We want to serve you. 375 00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:27.100 We want to think about you. 376 00:38:27.100 --> 00:38:29.460 We want to spend our time in worship of you. 377 00:38:29.460 --> 00:38:39.300 you because of the preciousness of your great love for us and all that you’ve done for us in Christ. 378 00:38:39.300 --> 00:38:58.020 Father, as we share the table this morning, I pray that this would be a genuine act of thanksgiving on our part to you and that as we take the bread that symbolizes Jesus’ body broken for us, that we would think about the cross. 379 00:38:58.020 --> 00:39:00.960 We would think about the a great sacrifice. 380 00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:25.420 Not just his body nailed to a cross and all the things he suffered through the Roman hands, but Father, him hanging on that cross for those hours under your condemnation and judgment, bearing the helldeserving sin, paying for the helldeserving sin that we owe. 381 00:39:25.420 --> 00:39:28.820 More than anything, we can’t we can’t comprehend that. 382 00:39:28.820 --> 00:39:32.120 Can’t comp apprehend it. 383 00:39:32.120 --> 00:39:43.180 And Father, as we drink the cup, help us to truly remember the blood that was shed for us, his life being poured out in our place. 384 00:39:43.180 --> 00:39:56.160 And Father, as we praise you, we thank you for Jesus’ resurrection life and the life that you’ve given us in the spirit of God. 385 00:39:56.160 --> 00:40:01.680 Help us, Lord Jesus, to work worship you as we share this table this morning. 386 00:40:01.680 --> 00:40:05.900 Please bless the bread and the cup as we pass it in Jesus name. 387 00:40:05.900 --> 00:40:07.900 Amen.