Dear congregation, the Word of God both breaks down and binds what is broken. As I prepared this sermon this morning, or for this morning, the Word of God has both wounded me and healed me, both stricken me and embraced me, and I trust it will do the same for you this morning. Dear congregation, the subject that is before us this morning is one that I trust is very familiar to you. As you can see in the bulletin, this morning's sermon is entitled, The Fear of God, the Product of Divine Pardon. Now these two doctrines, one of forgiveness and one of fear of God, are basic to the Christian religion. They are foundational to our faith. Many of you, no doubt, are exceedingly familiar with these concepts and they have become so familiar that I fear they may have wandered into the realm of what is common. You've let familiarity in some instances cause what should be precious to be common. Well, as is often the case in this life, the things that are common tend to lose their sense of value. They tend to be taken for granted for they tend to be taken advantage of. And sometimes we get so familiar with certain truths of the gospel that they cease to amaze us any longer. What was once so wonderful that we wondered if it could be true, now becomes so common that we are hardly cognizant of it. Congregation, I would urge you and exhort you that we cannot afford to devalue these gospel truths any longer. We cannot afford to regulate these truths as pertaining only to our conversion and not to our daily living, that you may be feared. I wait for Yahweh. My soul does wait. And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning. Indeed, even more than the watchman for the morning. Oh Israel, hope in Yahweh. For with Yahweh there is covenantal love. and with him is abundant redemption and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquity. We see that the psalmist here this morning is one in great travail. You'll notice in verses 1 and 2 that he is in a deep place, rather a dark place. And he calls out to God from the depths of where he is. He has one prevailing desire that God would hear him. And behind that prevailing desire is an understood truth that if God hears the distress of the saint, God moves to help the saint in his distress. You see in verse 3, the admission of his guilt. Not only does he want God to hear him, but he admits that there is something that stands between he and God. He says, if you, Yahweh, would mark iniquity, Lord, who could stand? He recognizes the enormity of his guilt before God. He recognizes that there is this thing that stands between him and God and it's called sin. Sin in the form of what he has done, sin in the form of what he has thought, sin in the form of where he is in life. Trials and tribulations have overtaken him. I don't believe this is speaking of his conversion, however. I think this is speaking of his day in and day out Christian life. I think this is a psalmist who tries to follow God in a world that is fallen. A world full of sin, full of distress. My question to you this morning is, where does the psalmist run when he is in the depths? Where does he go? When he's in this ocean of trouble, to what rock, beloved, does he cling? Well, you see it right there in the verse we will exposit this morning. He runs to God. He runs to the gospel. When the sin-soaked sea surrounds the saint, When the waves of the world pound the saint, when the tides of temptations pull at the saint, beloved, where does he go? He runs to the gospel. The gospel not only saves us, but it preserves us. And in these two verses we find so much on how to live in a fallen world. Commentator Archibald Simpson said of these two verses, verses three and four, these two verses contain the sum of all the scriptures. Beloved, two verses boiling down all that the scriptures say. What we see firstly here, if you're taking notes, Our first point this morning will be a hope that is not to be forgotten. A hope that is not to be forgotten. You'll notice in verse 4, the first word is a contraction, but... Though sin pervades all of the life of and the surrounding of the saint, yet there is forgiveness with God. John Owen And I think perfectly summarizing the relationship between verses 3 and 4 says, sin stands contrary to God. It is rebellion against His sovereignty, opposition to His holiness, a provocation to His justice, a rejection of His yoke, a casting off of the creature's dependence on its Creator. That God, then should have pity and compassion on sinners, in every one of whose sin there is inconceivably more evil than we can even comprehend, argues in infinitely gracious nature in Him." You see, though the psalmist is surrounded by sin, his eyes drift to heaven. And he sees God, and with God is pardon. With God is, as he says, forgiveness. Pardon, forgiveness. To treat one as though he had never sinned, though a wrong has been committed, to act as though it had not. To treat one as though something in the past had never happened. We'll develop that as we go, but that is the root meaning of forgiveness. To overlook a transgression. It doesn't ignore the presence of sin, it overcomes sin. It is not a make-believe understanding of reality, beloved, it is your new reality. Forgiveness is with God. Though Satan has marshaled at his back iniquities, temptations, trials, persecutions, and all that lies with Satan, what lies with God? Well, one thing and one thing only. Forgiveness. As a psalmist drowns in the ocean of this world, he lets his gaze drift to heaven. And he sees God, and what is with him? Forgiveness. The remission of sin. And that's all he says. He didn't need to look further than that, beloved. He saw forgiveness at the right hand of his God. But how is it that this God, supremely holy and supremely just, could forgive? God is not an old grandfather who winks at our sin and chooses to ignore it. That would make him unjust. But he is a just God whose justice fell unimpeded upon Christ for us. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 20 through 21 Say, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were entreating through us. We beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And how could that happen? He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. How can forgiveness happen, beloved? Well, there was a great exchange that took place, where your sins were laid on the perfect son, and the righteousness of the perfect son is available to you. Therefore, when God looks at the sinner who has repented and put faith in Christ, he sees not a disobedient child, he sees rather a perfect son, a perfect daughter. The promise of the new covenant found in Jeremiah 31-34 says this, And they shall not teach again, each man his own neighbor. And each man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest of them, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. Beloved God has, in grace and in combination with justice, forgotten your iniquity. How often in our Christian lives, having come to faith, having repented of sin, having put belief in Christ, do we then choose to remember what God has forgotten? Beloved, it says, I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. Too often we allow our memory to be sharp in this area. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, we recall sins of the past and allow them to cripple us in the present. Believer, God has forgotten them. So should you. You see, the psalmist in this psalm lifted his eyes from his circumstances. And with eyes of faith, he looked to heaven. With eyes of faith, he pierced both sea and sky to the sea of glass that was above him. He looked to Christ who was at the Father's right hand. He looked to the Lamb of God and saw his pardon. Believer, are you looking to Christ this morning? When you find yourselves in the depths, when you find yourself surrounded by trials, surrounded by failures, surrounded by persecutions, surrounded by disappointments, do you look at what is around you or with eyes of faith do you behold your Savior? Do you see the Lamb standing, having purchased your pardon for you? Do you see Christ? Do you run to Christ? Is Christ precious to you? In your hour of need, beloved, run nowhere else. Run nowhere else but to Christ. He alone possesses forgiveness. And believer, it's enough, it is enough to supersede all the trials of this life. It's enough to supersede all your iniquities. Though the mountains of our sin may be great, and believer they are, the Everest of God's forgiveness towers over all the rest. God's forgiveness, like the flood of Noah's day, covers every peak. None stand above those waters. Far too often, I'm afraid, we turn and run either inwardly or outwardly to other sources than Christ for comfort in our time of need. Believer, look no further than your Savior. Look no further than the immeasurable Lamb of God. You may seek forgiveness elsewhere, and you will not find it. You may seek comfort elsewhere, and you will not find it. You may be distracted for a time, but you will not find forgiveness. Run to Christ, and He will in no wise turn you away. Run to Christ, and He will embrace you with the kisses of His forgiveness. Run to Christ, and your iniquities will be turned away. He should know He paid for them. He is our brother, our Lord, and our Savior. So often we think that running to Christ is merely an event that happens at our salvation. Believer, it's an event that should happen daily. Salvation is where we begin to run to Christ, where we run to Him for the first time. But believe me, don't stop there. Run to Christ daily. Run to Him hourly. Stop pursuing the things of this earth and trying to distract yourself from what you've done. He knows what you have done and He loves you with a love that is immeasurable. And he says, I will remember their sin no more. He who could condemn you more than any other chooses in his Son to forget them. We would be wise to not remember the things that God has forgotten. We would be a wise people. But believer, I'm sure you agree with me on this. that your sin is forgiven. And yet, are there not times in your life where you feel like sin is a master who's unwilling to let you go so easily? Do you ever feel that way? Am I the only one? That sin, Satan, the world says, no, not so fast. You ever feel that way? You ever feel like sin is a master not willing to let you go? In the 19th century, there was a slave in the South who decided he would steal melons from his master's garden so that he could give them and distribute them to other slaves who'd been denied their meals for whatever reason. He'd go out at night, take the melons, and give them to those who were too weak to do the next day's work. Well, one day after he had been out and about providing for fellow slaves, the master caught him. His footprints matched what was in the mud, and he was severely beaten for what he had done. After he was beaten, he was told to then go out into the cotton fields again, and his quota was not relaxed. He had to meet the same quota. As he considered the late start of the day, as he considered his weak state from the beatings, and there was no way that he could produce that much cotton again. And so he knew that he would be beaten again. And the next day would be worse. So he decided to do what his older brother had done a year before and run away to Canada. When he had an opportunity, he got down on his hands and his knees and he crawled to the edge of the forest. And when he reached the forest, he stood up and he ran. And he ran for 15 miles. And he ran and he ran and he ran until night fell and 15 miles later he collapsed in a field of tall grass. He slept there, awoke the next day, found a stream and washed his wounds. found an apple tree, and ate some apples, and was walking along the way, and as the day progressed, joy filled his heart. Joy filled his heart. He was a free man. So he began to, in joy of his freedom, and in anticipation of arriving safely in Canada, he began to sing songs. He sang songs of the gospel, of being delivered from sin as God is his Savior. And he went along the way singing and joy filled his heart. I don't know what song he sang, but with a little imagination if he were in our day, he might be singing the line that has been added to Amazing Grace. My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy flows, unending love, amazing grace. He sang gospel songs. And His song was interrupted with the distant barking of bloodhounds. His master, was unwilling to let him go so easily. Terror struck his heart and began to run and he was in a state of panic as he heard the dogs closing in. And he said in his heart, I knew it was too good to be true. I knew it was too good to be true. I knew freedom couldn't be mine. I knew it couldn't be mine. And he ran and he ran and he ran and believe her, Do we do the same thing? Have we been freed from our old master, washed, fed, and singing, only to let the black dogs of sin and temptation interrupt our song? Do you hear the dogs some days, believer? You let sin bark at you? Do you let your old master pursue you to the point where it clouds out, it drowns out gospel songs? Believer, this text would tell me that you're a free man. You're not going back there. You're not going back to sin, Satan, and the world. You've been set free. And not by your work, believer. No, no, no. By the work of one far better than you. You're not going back. And yet, is it not true that we can allow the barks of sin, the noise and the clamor of trials drowned out our gospel singing? You're a free man. You're a free woman. Don't let sin's barking interrupt your gospel song. The book of Micah chapter 7 verse 18 says this, Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in covenant love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under His foot. Yes, He will cast all their sin into the depths of the sea. Believer, don't dredge up from the bottom of the ocean what God has buried there. Don't fish them back to the surface to re-examine them in your mind's eye. Isaiah 43, 25 says, I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions. For my own sake, I will not remember your sins. God, in grace and in Christ, forgets your sins. Believer, don't remember them. Puritan John Owen says, there is nothing that sin and Satan labor more to hide from you that you are forgiven. He cannot cause you to be unforgiven, but he can cause you to forget that you are forgiven. He can cause you to forget the hope that you have in Jesus Christ. He can cause you to question it. He can cause you to doubt it. But believer, if you are saved and have faith in Christ, He cannot cause you to lose it. Why then should we forget it? You see, forgiveness is not just about merely avoiding the pains of hell. Forgiveness is about restoring communion with God. If we run to Christ merely to avoid the pains of hell, we've missed the point of forgiveness. God saves us not so that we wouldn't suffer. No, He saves us that He might be our eternal possession and we His. He saves us that we might commune with Him. Believer, do not let your view of forgiveness be so low. Be so low that it would only be rescue from hell. It's much more than that. It's much more than that. God saves you that you might have fellowship with Him. Don't let Satan cause you to forget that. Don't let your sin and your flesh cause you to forget that. Owen says again, though men profess that God is gracious, yet their aversion to Him and communion with Him, or lack of communion, abundantly manifests that they do not believe what they say. If they did, they could not but delight and trust in Him. They are all too often like the servant who hid his talent in the ground and say, Master, I knew you to be a hard man. How often we who are saved don't run to God, don't run to Christ, because we think that God is a hard man, a hard master. Believer, He is not a hard master. He will never turn away the one who runs to Him in faith. He never will. He never will. He's a God who is gracious. A God who forgives. A God who loves those who did not love Him. A God who laid on Christ all of our iniquity. So we might be embraced to Him as His Son and as His daughters. You see, believer, we forget that we're forgiven so often. You're forgiven. Your God has forgotten all of your sin. The Scripture says He has both trampled them underfoot and buried them in an ocean. Does that fuel your life now? Does that fuel your worship? Do you sing as a people who say, I had sin that was an ocean and my God has forgiven all of it? Do you sing as a people that have joy? Joy from what God has done. Joy in their Savior. Love for the Savior. Love for what God has done. Love in your communion for God. Believer, no iniquity remains that God has not dealt with in Christ. Sin's past, sin's present, and sin's future. Before you think that will lead to liberty, we'll get there. Before you think that that would then give license to loose living, we'll get there. But for now, you are forgiven. Does that cause joy in your heart? Does that cause you immeasurable thankfulness to God? Or do we let the world cause us to doubt it? Do we let our flesh cause us to doubt it? We shouldn't. We shouldn't let those dogs scare us out of our worship. We shouldn't let those dogs scare us from walking obediently and joyfully with our Savior. We shouldn't let those dogs frighten us from fulfilling all of our Christian duties. We should be a joyful people. We should be a thankful people. And before I move on to what forgiveness produces, Two warnings, two pleads. If you're here this morning and you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ, the comforts I have laid out are not yours yet. If you have not turned from sin and embraced and kissed the Savior, your sin remains. You're the psalmist who has not turned to God, you're the psalmist who drowns in the ocean of sin. If you have not repented of sin and put faith in Christ and believed in Christ, then you have no forgiveness. And I would plead anyone here this morning that if Christ is not your Savior, that you would turn to the Son. Leave all of your good merits behind. Leave every reason why you think God should love you. Leave every good thing you think you've done and run to Christ and kiss the Son. Psalm 2 says He'll be angry with you in His wrath if you don't. And you'll perish in the way. I would plead with you if you were here this morning and God is not your God. And salvation has not been embraced. And Christ is not your Savior. That you would turn from your way of sinning and run to the Son, and He will not turn you away. If you are here this morning and you do believe you have turned to Christ, you have repented of sin, you believe and you've kissed the Son, well then, believer, continue to run to Christ. Kiss the Son. lest he, or excuse me, lest you grieve him and commit adultery with the world. Continue to run to Christ. Don't run to the things of the world, beloved. They will only let you down. They will only cause you to forget your one hope in Christ. Run to Christ and kiss the Son. Run to Christ and kiss the Son. Now, you may be wondering, well, if all of my sins have been forgiven, as you say, both past, present and future, what's to say I don't live as I want? What's to say I don't continue sinning? If God's forgiven it, what's the difference? Well, you see, forgiveness produces something in a person. Forgiveness has a brother that is always with him. And his brother's name is the fear of God. You'll see it in verse 4 of Psalm 130. But there is forgiveness with you, that for the purpose of that you may be feared. That you may be feared. You see, one who is forgiven has in him the fear of God. One who has genuinely been forgiven does not say, I can sin as I like, I can live as I like, I can go as I want. Listener, if that's your attitude, I have serious doubts as to whether you've been saved. If those are the thoughts that prevail in your mind, I'll turn to God later, I'll live as I want now, then I have biblical precedent to say, I don't think you've been forgiven. Forgiveness is not a license to sin. It's the first step in the fear of God. The one who has been saved by much or from much fears God much. The one who has been forgiven much loves God much. So, for our second point this morning, we see a weapon neglected. And we'll unpack that as we go. A weapon neglected. Forgiveness produces the fear of God. Now, how would you define the fear of God? Doesn't the Bible say we shouldn't fear God? Doesn't it say love casts out fear? Doesn't it say we live free, we don't fear God? Unbelievers fear God, or should fear God. But their fear is that He will judge them. And that is altogether different than the Christian fear. Commentator John Brown Defines the fear of God in a way. I cannot improve upon He says the fear of God means to esteem the smiles and the frowns of God to be of greater weight and Greater value than the smiles and frowns of men Did you catch that? The fear of God means to esteem the smiles and frowns of God, to be of greater weight, of greater value than the smiles and frowns of men. That's the best definition I found. What does it mean to fear God? It means I love his smile more than I love the smiles of anyone else, including myself. What does it mean to fear God? It means I fear His frown, His disappointment, more than I fear the frowns and disappointments of anyone else, including myself. That's what it means to fear God, believer. Thomas Watson said, fear is the leading grace or the first grace, the first seed that God sows in the heart. when a Christian can say little of faith and perhaps nothing of assurance, yet he dares not deny that he fears God. It's the first grace sown in the heart. It is, as Bunyan described it, the highest duty. He says it is the highest duty because, as I may call it, it is not a duty in and of itself, but it is the salt that seasons every duty. For there is no duty performed by us that is acceptable to God if it is not seasoned with godly fear. Bunyan saw the fear of God as that which flavored every action we did in the Christian life. It's not I have the fear of God in one compartment and have other things in other compartments. I have the fear of God that saturates all that I do. In all that I do, I seek His smile more than I seek the smiles of men. In all I do, I fear the frown of God more than I fear the frown of men. And thus it pervades all that we do in this life. All that we do in this life. Solomon, the wisest, said in Ecclesiastes 12, 13, this is the conclusion. When all has been heard, Fear God and keep his commandments. After all the life he'd lived, after all the places he'd run to find comfort, after all the ways that he'd tried to live his life, what did it boil down to? Fear God. Fear God. Love his smile and fear his frown more than anything else. You see, we experience this fear on a human level as well. I'm not afraid of... I'm not much afraid of letting down people that I don't know. I don't. If they're a stranger, I don't think much of it. Now, a family member or a spouse, oh, I fear letting them down. And I love making them smile. I love making my daughters smile. and I fear letting her down. Where much love has been expressed, believer, much fear exists. And the same with our relationship with our God, where much love has been poured out, where much love has been expressed to you, believer, much fear should exist. Oh, that I would disappoint my Savior should drive fear into you. All that I have an opportunity to please my God should supersede all other pleasures, all other pursuits. I have a chance to please my God? I'll take it. Regardless that it comes at great cost to myself. Regardless that it will cost me everything in the end. Watson said that some think that the fear of God breeds sadness. No. It is the inlet of joy. The fear of God is the morning star which ushers in the sunlight of His comfort. The fear of God is really the beginning of our finding pleasure in God, of finding our joy in God. You cannot find enjoyment in God if you do not fear Him. Spurgeon said that fear is the root of all piety. None fear the Lord like those who've experienced His forgiving love. If God were to execute justice upon all, there would be none left to fear Him. If all were under the apprehension of being judged, all would despair and it would harden them against Him. It is grace which leads the way to a holy regard of God and a fear of grieving Him. You see, the sons and the daughters of grace Fear God. They fear God. We should fear God more than any. To whom more grace has been shown in believing, we've been shown more grace than we've ever deserved. It's what defines grace. We should fear Him. We should love His smile and fear His frown. We should love his smile and fear his frown. Psalm 25, 11 through 12 links these ideas of forgiveness and fear together. The psalmist says, for your name's sake, oh Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Who is the man that fears Yahweh? He shall teach in the way that he chooses. Fear. And forgiveness are brothers that should never be separated in our hearts and minds. One leads to the other. If you have been forgiven, then you will fear. And you may say this morning, well, I believe I'm forgiven. I believe in God. I believe in Christ. But I don't know what you're talking about, about this fear. And listener, I doubt that you've been forgiven. If you don't know the fear of God, has God become your God? Those who have union with God, those who have been drawn near by grace, those who have been forgiven all of their iniquities, fear God. Now we can fear Him more and less, But they have the fear of God. They have the fear of God. So if you have in your mind right now, I don't fear God. That should be a warning signal to you right now. That you are not right with God. That God is not your God and you are not his son or daughter. If you live your life in a fearless way, If we can attach the phrase no fear to the way that you live, God is not forgiving you. You have no peace with God. And you have great cause to fear, because you're still under his judgment. You have great cause to fear, not his smile, but his wrath, because it is still upon you. Well, you may ask, what does the fear of God produce in a life? What does it do? What does it look like? Well, it does several things. Fear of God produces a reverence for God. Not a lightheartedness, a reverence for God. It produces a watchfulness against sin. Sin is not taken lightly. Though we've been forgiven, we watch against sin. We guard against sin. We would hate to disappoint our God. It produces holy conversation. Not carnal conversation, not worldly conversation, but holy conversation. Turning our thoughts and our mouths back to God with one another. That should be especially true in the church. That should be especially true on the Lord's Day. That we would not come into the Lord's house with carnal things on our lips. But we would speak to one another of what God has done, and of what God is doing, and what we love about our Savior. That should pervade our conversations, because we fear God. Fear of God should produce self-denial. That is a holy abstaining from those things that are either unlawful or unhelpful. Oh, we know we should not do things that God has forbidden, But there's also things that aren't helpful either. There are pursuits that can distract our minds from God, though they be not inherently sinful. Most anything can turn into an idol to draw our hearts away from God. Even good gifts from God can be turned into idols. Food, entertainment, sports, etc. The fear of God produces a sincere and simple obedience to God. Obedience to God. The fear of God produces compassion towards others. One who has been forgiven much and then fears much knows that sin resides not only in himself, but in others. And is very compassionate towards that. Not approving of it. Compassionate, knowing that others sin as I do. It is not to take sin lightly, but it is to have compassion like our Savior had compassion. Fear of God produces fervent and constant prayer. Forgiveness is not just escaping hell's fire. Forgiveness is about joining into, entering into communion with God, and prayer is a primary means where that is expressed. I love my God and I want to commune with God. Thus I pray. And the closet of prayer is frequented. And it is not a half-hearted prayer. It is not a prayer that prays because we know we ought to be praying. It is a prayer that seeks the Heavenly Father to know our needs. Just the other week, my daughter was having a bad day and dad came home and there was nothing in particular that was wrong, just a whole day of wrong. And she crawled up on my lap and just wept, just cried. Laid her head on my chest and wept. And I thought as I sat there, this is prayer. This is what we do to God. Prayer reaches for the lap and the chest of God and makes known your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions that when all in life goes bad, we know that God hears us. It's prayer. Fear of God produces a readiness and a willingness in our lives to, at God's call, give up our best enjoyments if He so desires. The fear of God produces a humility of mind. Not a high mind, not a high view of self, but a low view of self. Not a false humility where we know ourselves to be better, but we'll say we're not to appear humble. That's not humility, that's hypocrisy. The fear of God produces an immovable hope in God's mercy. An immovable hope in God's mercy. We don't cling to other things in this world. We trust that God is merciful and clean to it. One who fears God delights in the commands of God. The Psalms repletely say, Thy law, it's wonderful to me. I delight to know your law. Fear of God makes the saint run to God and kiss it, kiss his law. because it reveals God's character to us. And lastly, the fear of God increases our love for God, a love for His people, and a great desire to see those who do not know Him come to salvation. A love for God, a love for the saints, and a love for the lost. A love for God, a love for the saints, and a love for the lost. but sometimes our fear of God can wane. Watson said, the reason that men do not fear God is because they entertain slight thoughts of Him. Psalm 50, 21 says, you thought, and this is God speaking, you thought that I was altogether like you. Why do we fear God? We think low of Him. We think small thoughts of a big God. Well, what assaults the fear of God in our lives? If the fear of God can be more or less, but always exists in a believer, what would cause it to decrease in my life? Because I believe we all would want the fear of God to be nourished, to be cherished, to grow and to flourish. What do we do in our day-to-day lives that would cause that to grow smaller? Well, I've got 10 things. I'll state them in the negative. If you want the fear of God to decrease in your life, pay no attention to sin's beginning. Tell yourself that a sin is a small sin, that it's nothing, that God neither sees it nor cares, and your fear of God will grow smaller in your life. If you want the fear of God to grow smaller in your life, to decrease, go to sleep without repenting. Take your iniquity to your pillow and don't confess it to God. Don't repair that relationship. That will cause your fear of God to decrease. If you want The fear of God is diminishing your life. Do not dwell on Christ on the cross. Don't dwell on it. Relegate the gospel to merely saving you and not to applying to every day and your fear of God will decrease. If you don't want to grow in your fear of God, then be prayerless. Don't visit the closet and don't visit church meetings where prayer is held. Don't do it. If you don't want fear for God, then abandon prayer. But if you want to fear God, then nourish prayer. Pray alone. Pray with God's people. Seek the Lord while you have life in your veins to seek Him. And your fear would grow. What assaults the fear of God? A coveting heart. Because it assaults God's goodness in not giving you things that you want. What assaults the fear of God? An unbelieving heart, because it attacks the truth of God. It does not take His promises seriously. If you want the fear of God to shrink in your life, then have a forgetful heart. A heart that abandons the promises of God. If you want the fear of God to wax or to wane in your life, give way to murmuring and complaining against God, because it attacks His sovereignty. and your command to be thankful. If you want the fear of God to grow smaller in your life, then let pride grow in your chest, and let yourself be lifted high rather than God. Lastly, if you want the fear of God to diminish in your life, then let your heart grow cold. Don't warm it at the affections for Christ. Don't warm it at the fire of the Word of God. Don't warm it with Christian fellowship. Don't warm it with praise. Let it grow cold from the world. Do those and your fear of God will grow smaller. But if you are watchful against sin, if you are quick in your repenting, if you think much of Christ on the cross, if you frequent the closet, if you frequent the prayer meetings, if you kill and mortify a coveting heart, if you kill and mortify an unbelieving heart, if you are thorough in your remembering of the promises of God, you take great pains to call them to your mind, If you flee from murmuring and complaining and those who murmur and complain and kiss thankfulness, the fear of God will grow. If you know you have a tendency to pride, then foster a high view of Christ, and yourself will decrease. And if you always and constantly are warming yourself at the fires of Christian fellowship, the fire of the word of God, preaching, singing, prayer, then your heart will grow warm to God. And the wind of the world will not be able to chill it, though it blows frequently and cold. How do we apply this fear of God to our life? There are many ways, and I don't want my listing of a few particulars to stop you from thinking of all the ways in which they apply. But here are a few. I want to be very clear, and I want everyone to listen. How does the fear of God influence your life, young ladies? By young ladies, I mean under 50. If you fear God, then you love his smile and you fear his frown. When you wake up in the morning and you decide to get dressed for the day, whose smile are you aiming at? God's? Or men? When you decide for yourself the clothes you will wear, are you seeking to please God or seeking to please men? You know your heart. Young men, if you fear God, you love His smile and you fear His frown. In the way that you act, in the way that you speak, are you seeking the approval of God or are you seeking the approval of your friends or of young ladies? Do your mouths pour forth sarcastic remarks or they transform by holy conversation? Do you act foolishly to impress others or do you act reverently to please your God who watches you? You know your heart. Older saints, I won't put any age limits on this, in the use of your time, lived a lot of life, perhaps earn or feel entitled to spend your time as you will. In the way that you spend your time, do you fear God? Are you seeking His smile or are you seeking the comfort of your flesh? You know your heart. Married couples, Does your house aim at the smile of God? In the way that you treat your spouse, in the way that you raise your children, are you more afraid of what others would think or of what God thinks? In the entertainments that you bring into your home, even those you spend money to engage in, Are you more concerned about pleasing your flesh and engaging in comforts than you are about pleasing God? And those are just four. They are not exhaustive, but they're a start. Believer, I fear that we have spent too much time thinking about the thoughts of men. We've poured too much oil of our concern on the altar of men's opinions. We've spent too little time in the altar of God. What does this look like in a life? What does forgiveness look like in a life? What does the fear of God look like in a life? It'll look differently, but I'll tell you what it looked like in the life of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand. When communism overtook Russia, Stalin called together a gathering of clergy that would later be called the Congress of the Cults. 4,000 ministers from all denominations were called in to meet. And these men that professed to be men of God elected Joseph Stalin to be the honorary president of their meeting. And one after another, they rose and said, Christianity and communism are compatible. What this government does is fine. It agrees with us. And to boil down their comments, it was something like this. The gospel doesn't impact much of our life. The gospel doesn't do a lot. It saves me, but it doesn't do much beyond that, and we're fine, and we can all get along, and you call on this God, and you call on that God, and that's fine, we can live with that. The gospel doesn't reach many places. Well, in that Congress was sitting a man named Richard Wurmbrand and his wife. And his wife, Sabina, leaned over to Richard and said, Richard, stand up and wipe the shame from the face of Christ. These men are spitting in his face. And Richard said back to his wife, if I do so, you will lose your husband. If I do this, if I wipe the shame from the face of Christ in the presence of these men, you will lose your husband. And what does a woman who fears God say to a man who tells her that? She said, I don't wish to have a coward as a husband. You see, she feared God more than she feared being a widow. So Richard stood and gave testimony to the gospel. And he said that what we believe is incompatible with everything you're doing. The gospel is not a private matter, but it changes everything about the way we do life. And did he pay for it? Oh, yeah, he did. Yeah, he spent over 14 years in prison. He spent three years in solitary confinement, 12 feet underground. He was beaten time and time again. They released him after a decade. said don't preach and he preached again and got thrown back in prison and I have neither time nor desire to go into what he experienced but he feared God you know there's another lady that he tells of a young woman who who was preaching the gospel to children in her neighborhood preaching the gospel to children the communists saw it, knew of it, and decided to arrest her. But they delayed the arrest until a very important day that was coming, her wedding day. So right before she took her vows, they broke open the doors and stormed the altar. And this young Christian woman turned to the men who were rushing upon her, said, put them on. put on the handcuffs, she turned to her husband, and she kissed him. She kissed the handcuffs. She said, it is, I thank my heavenly father, my bridegroom, for this jewel that he has presented me on my marriage day. I thank him that I am worthy to suffer for him. And they hauled her away and did terrible things for years. After they let her go, years later, years later, After unspeakable evils, she said, it was my honor and the least I could do for Christ. Now, it is my hope that everyone in this room who professes the name of Christ, when faced with governments and when faced with courts, would believe in your heart, I would do the same. I would give testimony to God. And I hope that's true. I do. But I have a question for you. When you stand before not governments but personal gain, when you stand before not courts but comforts, do you wipe the shame from the face of Christ? Do you kiss the shackles and bless your bridegroom? When faced to make a decision of personal pleasure or gospel proclamation, what do you do? My fear is that we far too often stay seated. Believer, if that's your practice, then you're practicing for failure if it ever comes to governments and courts. Do not practice denying you're caught in private. Do not practice making compromises on small things and think that one day you'll give a Richard Wurmbrand-type defense. No. He was able to do that because consistently in his life, he stood up and wiped the shame from the face of Christ in all matters of his life. That day was a normal day for Richard. We cannot let the fear of God be a blade that sits and rests in its scabbard. We can't let that happen. We must draw it forth, sharpen it with all of the means that are at our disposal, and with it, slay the 10,000 lesser fears and pleasures that assault us daily. The Word of God and the fear of God are weapons at our disposal that will help the believer slay lesser pleasures, slay the affections that wage war on their hearts. Believer, we need to love the smile of God more than we love the smiles of men. And we need to fear the frown of God more than the frowns of men. If we are going to be free from the fear of men, we need to first be bound to the fear of God. Only then will we treasure God's smile more than all other smiles. And only then will we fear the frown more than all other frowns. Let's pray. Our Father, we have spoken much of what it is to fear you. We have rejoiced, God, that you forgave us. Help us, Lord, help us, help us, help us to not forget what You have covered in our lives. Help us to never cease treasuring Christ. Help us to never restrict the Gospel to some areas of our lives, but give it reign and dominance of all, all aspects of who we are. Our Father, we confess as a body of believers that we have not feared you as we ought to have feared you. We confess that far too often the smiles of those around us and the smile of our flesh supersede our love for you. We confess that far too often our concern for other men, far too often our concern for discomfort, overshadow our concern for you. God forgive us. May we be a people. A people like Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand. People like that young Russian lady. May we kiss the chains. May we wipe the shame. and tell the world and tell ourselves that the gospel changes everything about our lives. Father, we cannot do it on our own. We need your Spirit's help. We are weak and we need your strength. We believe, Lord, help us in our unbelief. We love you. You have ransomed us from all our enemies. You have purchased us back from death. And though we will one day all fall, yet will we rise again with you. We look forward to the day when nothing will compete with our love for your smile. We look forward to the day when there is nothing to fear. Your love drives out all enemies and we are with you without sin forever. Until then, God, give us a fear for you. As a body of believers, give us a fear for you. Help us to remember that we are free from all enemies and have been forgiven so much. Father, we need your help. Amen.