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Only the preaching of Christ can turn a heart to desire righteousness and fear God with a loving, trembling, filial adoration.

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Hearing Michael Reeves describe the right fear of God over the past two days leaves me wondering. How do I grow in this fear, this delight filled, joy filled, adoration filled fear? Is that what you've been asking as well? Well, that's what we'll hear about today on this Wednesday edition of Renewing youg Mind. There is so much to contemplate in this series, so I do encourage you to request the series and its study guide by giving a donation in support of Renewing youg mind@renewingyourmind.org we'll send you the DVD set and unlock the series in the Ligonier app so you can keep listening and studying as soon as your donation is processed once well, to answer today's question, here's Dr. Reeves on growing in the Fear of the Lord.

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Well, having got something of a sense of what the fear of God is, how can we grow ourselves in this right fear of the Lord? How can we grow? For the fear of the Lord is not a state of mind you can guarantee with five easy steps. It's not something that can be acquired with simple self effort. And actually the danger of using how to language is that we can shift our focus from the one who is the fear himself, shift our focus from him to ourselves to our activities, therefore losing all possibility of genuine fear. We can so easily get caught up in the externals, the steps we're following, the habits we're working at. We can look at our external performance and think that our pious habits, our outward displays of reverence equal the fear of God, when in reality we're faking it and missing the vital reality. The fear of God is the heartbeat of of our new life in Christ. It is the soul of godliness. And so it is not the mere sum of certain behaviors. It is not something that can be acquired with simple self effort. If it were, it would be something infinitely less precious, something much more superficial, instead of being a consequence of any particular practices. The fear of God is a matter of the deep orientation of the heart, something that causes truly Christian behavior. It's not the consequence, but the cause of it. Now how easily we mistake the reality of the fear of God for an outward and hollow show. Martin Luther said, to fear God is not merely to fall upon your knees. Even a godless man and a robber can do that which should give us pause. Because, for example, it would be all too easy and often right to Criticize church worship that seems devoid of any real fear of God, but then as a solution, simply lay down rules demanding some external performances which mimic true fear. But Scripture presents the fear of God as being a matter of the heart's inclinations. So for example, Psalm 112:1 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. The one who fears the Lord then is not merely the one who grudgingly attempts the outward action of keeping the Lord's commandments. No, the one who truly fears the Lord delights in his commandments. In other words, fear is something that runs deep, deeper than behavior. It's something in the very grain of the heart that drives the behavior. That's true of all fear. Sinful fear is a matter of sinful desires. It hates God, it despises him as a revenging judge, and therefore sinful fear acts out sinfully. In contrast, a right fear loves God, it cherishes him as a Holy Father, and therefore has a sincere longing to be like him and manifests itself in righteous actions. So the fear of God stops us from thinking we're made for passionless performance or detached knowledge of abstract truths. It shows we were made to know God in such a way that our hearts tremble at his beauty and splendor. It shows that entering the life of Christ involves the transformation of our very affections, so that we begin to despise, not merely renounce, despise the sins we once cherished and treasure the God we once abhorred. Do you know, that is why singing, singing is such an appropriate expression of a right filial fear. Another surprising verse that shows this is the beginning of Psalm 47, where the sons of Korah cry, Clap your hands. All peoples shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord the most High is to be feared. He's to be feared. So we clap and shout for joy. In fact, the fear of the Lord is the reason why Christianity is the most song filled of religions. It's the reason why from how Christians stream music, how they worship together, they're always looking to make melody about their faith. Because Christians instinctively want to stir up the affections behind the words. They know that words spoken flatly will not do in worship of this God. Now, if the fear of God is a matter of the heart, how you think you can cultivate the fear of God will depend on how you think our hearts work. So take Martin Luther. Martin Luther grew up believing that if you work at outward righteous acts, you'll become a righteous person. It was a fake. It till you make it philosophy. Keep doing the righteous acts and you become a righteous person. But his experience soon proved that wrong. He found, in fact, that trying to make himself righteous by his own efforts actually drove him into a profoundly sinful fear and hatred of God. He could achieve an outward appearance of righteousness, but it was just a hollow sham. It's all he could do by his own efforts. And so, as Luther saw it, as he came to see, our sin is not merely a matter of our actions and our habits. Our actions merely manifest what's going on deeper, the inclinations of our hearts whether we love or hate God. And we often forget this. And so we find ourselves surprised by our sin. Ever been surprised by something shameful that came out of you? And you think I didn't know I had that in me? I thought I was better than that. And you've forgotten what's deep down. We sin because we're carrying out the desires of the flesh. We choose sin because that's what we want. We naturally John 3 love darkness. And so James 1 each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desires and desire when it's conceived gives birth to sin. And so Luther saw. Well, if that's true, changing our habits won't deal with those deeper inclinations of the heart. What we need is a radical renewal. Not self improvement, but a profound change of heart, change of desire so that we want and love and long differently. We need hearts that actually love and are pleased with God, that actually find a spontaneous delight in him. That's to say, only the Holy Spirit can bring about that fundamental change in our disposition that we need. And he does that through the gospel which preaches Christ. Only the preaching of Christ can turn a heart to desire righteousness and fear God with a loving, trembling filial adoration. And you know, it's not the case that the Spirit only does that once in giving us new birth, leaving us from then on to sweat out our sanctification by our own effort. No, it is always the gospel that does the deepest plow work in our hearts. As John Owen put it. He said, holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and realizing of the gospel in our hearts. It is through the gospel that our hearts are turned. And only when your heart is then turned toward God will you want to turn your behavior to Him. So how does that work? Well, all of Scripture is profitable for growing in the filial fear of God. We can look at God's wisdom in planning out our salvation. We can look at his constant goodness to his people. We can look at his holiness, his greatness, his tenderness. All that he is moves us to know him better, to fear him more. Everything about him is awesome. All his works proclaim how fearful he is in all his ways. And Scripture even tells us to look outside itself, to look around at all creation, to see evidence of his magnificence and his graciousness. But as John Calvin put it, while in all creatures, both high and low, the glory of God shines, nowhere has it shone more brightly than in the cross. The cross is the hour when the Son of man is glorified. John 12:23. There on the cross, the fearfulness of God in all his great justice and mercy is most clearly seen and displayed. The cross, then, as the deepest revelation, is the most fertile soil for the fear of God. Why? Because at the cross we receive the forgiveness without which we'd never approach God or want to. Without Jesus work on the cross, God would only be a dreadful judge to us. Which is why you read Psalm 134 and it's so surprising. With you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. The forgiveness found at the cross gives us this right filial fear. But it also cultivates the most exquisitely fearful adoration of the Redeemer. Think of the sinful woman with Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Do you remember? She stood at Jesus feet and weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. Now that intensely physical demonstration of affection fits Scripture's picture of fear. It's such an emotionally intense reaction. Hers is an intensely fearful love. Her love is so intense it is fearful. When the magnitude of Christ's forgiveness, the extent to which he's gone for you, and therefore the gravity of your sin becomes clear, as it does best at the cross. The right loving reaction is so intense. Like with that woman, it is fearful. And there is another reason why the cross is so fertile a soil for the fear of God. Because the grace of God serves as a breadcrumb trail leading us up from the forgiveness we receive in the Gospel to the forgiver himself. So initially we marvel at the forgiveness. But in the light of the cross, Christians begin not only to thank God for His grace to us, we also begin to then realize what that says about Him. And we begin to praise him for how beautifully kind and merciful he reveals Himself to be. In the cross. We're not just thanking himself for what he has given. We're seeing who he is as he's revealed himself and caused to praise him. John Bunyan said, oh, that a great God should be a good God, a good God to an unworthy, to an undeserving, to a people that should do what they can to provoke the eyes of his glory. This should make us tremble. And there is nothing in heaven or earth, he said, that can so awe the heart as the grace of God. Tis that which makes a man fear. Tis that which makes a man tremble. Tis that which makes a man bow and bend and break to pieces. Nothing has that majesty and commanding greatness in and upon the hearts of the sons of men as has the grace of God. God. The grace of God has that commanding power in the hearts of the sons of men. And Bunyan was insistent the most powerful change in your heart towards a true fear of God will come at the cross. And he wrote some words of striking wisdom on this, of how the cross simultaneously cancels the believer's guilt and increases our appreciation of just how vile our sinfulness is. So at the cross we are forgiven, and in the moment of forgiveness we realise just how dirty we were. We didn't know it before. And Bunyan said, if God shall come to you and visit you with forgiveness of sins, that visit will remove the guilt, but it will increase the sense, the appreciation of your filth and the sense of this that God has forgiven you a filthy sinner will make you both rejoice and tremble. Oh, the blessed confusion that will then cover your face, friend, have you ever experienced that at the cross, that blessed confusion? It is a blessed confusion made up of sweet tears in which God's kindness shown you at the cross makes you weep at your wickedness and you simultaneously repent and rejoice. His mercy shows up your wickedness and accentuates it. And your very wickedness accentuates his grace. You see, it is deeper and more wonderful than you dared to dream. And it leads you to a deeper and more fearfully happy adoration of the Savior, not just a love of the forgiveness itself. Left there, you could be full of self love, not enjoying the Saviour, but just using him as one who gets you out of hell free. No, the heart change that happens at the cross leads us away from ourselves to wonder at the Saviour's gracious capacity for forgiveness. We're led from the gift to wondering at the glory of the Giver, from marvelling at what he's done to marveling at who he is in himself, his magnanimity, his utter goodness, undo us and fill us with a fearful, amazed adoration. Now, if the fear of God is the whole duty of man, Ecclesiastes 12, if it is the soul of godliness, the essence of the new heart, then every believer should pray with David, unite my heart to fear your name. Every believer should daily read Scripture, seek out books and fellowship that will be cross centered God, glorifying that they might grow in this delighted fear. That's for every believer. But the importance of the fear of God puts a particular challenge to those of us who are called to feed Christ's people with the Word of God in whatever sense, whether from a public platform or in a home study group. First, if people are ever to fear God aright with wonder and not dread, they need leaders who have that fear, who model it in how they live, how they talk every day. And the presence or absence of that fear should to some extent be sensed by the people. It should be something perhaps unnamable, but beautifully Christlike in the atmosphere around the leader. He should be affected by the beauty, the glory, the majesty of God. But second, the fear of God should be a key goal in all our teaching. This should be how we seek to encourage each other. The fear of God must shape the content and the intent, the intention of our teaching. As for content, people need the word of God if they're to grow in their sphere. Psalm 19 calls the word of God the fear of the Lord. It is one of the titles for the Word of God, for how it reveals the one who is so. The fear people need an expository scripture rich diet through the Scriptures. They need to be given a knowledge of God the Creator, and brought beyond to a knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ. They need to know the doctrine of justification by faith alone to banish their sinful fears. They need to have the glory of the crucified one placarded before them to grow in this wonderful filial fear. As for the intent of our ministry, the intention we must, like Moses, teach that the people fear the Lord. That's why he taught, he says in Deuteronomy 6. It means the knowledge of God we seek to instill is not an empty speculation. It is not information that merely flits in the brain. We cannot be content merely to transmit information as we teach. For there is no true knowledge of God where there is no true fear of God. For the living God is so tremendously glorious in all his ways, he cannot be known without being adored. And therefore, if the fear of God is so essential a matter for Christian faith, we who are called to preach cannot preach in such a way that allows for indifference. The word cannot go out listlessly. It cannot be received rightly, coolly, or unaffectedly. Preachers must share the fiery intent of God's word. They must preach so that sinners tremble, and so that the hearts of saints no longer creep in dread, but quake in wonder.