SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of God starts with faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of God begins with believing in what Christ did through shedding of his blood at Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: At Calvary, he took all that's not good about us, he took all that's unrighteous about us, that being afraid of God in our spirit that's very natural to all of us here.
SPEAKER_01: He took that, and when we put our faith in him, when we trust in him, he replaces that being afraid of God, being scared of God, and he puts in it the love of God with the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: He gives you the love of God, so you can't have a proper fear of God without the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Well, today I want to talk about something.
SPEAKER_01: I was going to do Ephesians for the third time.
SPEAKER_01: We are doing Ephesians next week, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But God really placed on my heart a topic that you may have never even heard in the church.
SPEAKER_01: I know I haven't, and I've been in the church now for 40 years, and it's a controversial topic because most of us as pastors don't really know how to maybe present it well.
SPEAKER_01: And I may not present it well today either, but I'll tell you this: it's on my heart that this is what God wants to do in our midst.
SPEAKER_01: It's on the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that a lot of times we don't speak on the fear of God is because of a fear of man.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times when we don't talk about the fear of God, it's because we're afraid that we'll not do it right or we'll get skewed off in our misunderstandings of the balance of the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to challenge that today and say that there's a difference between the fear of God and being afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about being afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about a biblical fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us to come to Him with a love for Him.
SPEAKER_01: So this is under the rubric, don't miss this, this is under the rubric of the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's through the love of God that you come into the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it's through the fear of God that you more deeply understand the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's clear in Scripture that what brings us to the Lord is the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: John writes, we love him because, right, he first loved us.
SPEAKER_01: Because he loved us, we're drawn to him.
SPEAKER_01: I was drawn to my earthly father because he loved me.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember having coaches that I loved.
SPEAKER_01: I had coaches in different sports that I loved because I could tell they really cared about me.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a kingdom principle that we're drawn into personal intimacy through the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: John continues, and this is love, that we love God, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be a propitiation for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Again, John the beloved, he called himself the beloved because probably none understood the love of God as deeply among the twelve apostles as John.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
SPEAKER_01: John continues, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.
SPEAKER_01: And so the fear of God, as I talk about it today, is going to be under the rubric of the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: Understanding that the love of God is the key to the fear of God, but listen, you won't understand the deepest riches of the love of God without the fear of God in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul, in writing to Timothy, says an interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind.
SPEAKER_01: So don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about a spirit of fear, I'm talking about the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting in Scripture that there's a lot said about the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: So in the Old Testament, fear of God or fear of the Lord is mentioned 100 times.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, the fear of God or the fear of the Lord is mentioned over 20 times.
SPEAKER_01: Paul tells us to work out our salvation by fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_01: So there's something about trembling under the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about the fear of God that we mature.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me, men and women, it's really important.
SPEAKER_01: That you can't mature without fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_01: We work out our salvation by fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just say this: you don't get saved by fear.
SPEAKER_01: I believe you get saved through love.
SPEAKER_01: Because even Martin Luther, who came at God in a time in medieval Catholicism in the 16th century, and he did everything he could to walk in holiness before God, even at one point going to Rome and praying up over a hundred steps, his knees bloody, just trying to be right with God, wanting the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then he came in to the, he came into the justice of God.
SPEAKER_01: He came into the righteousness of God by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: He discovered that the just, those who are just before the Lord, those who walk in the fear of God, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so he understood that that faith, through the love of God, was the way into the fear of God and the righteousness of God working in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And so that the truth of the matter is, is that in our lives the love of God and the fear of God work together.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's interesting, just jot this down.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I have it up on the PowerPoint or not, but Acts 10 2.
SPEAKER_01: You might just write down Acts 10 2.
SPEAKER_01: And it was said of Cornelius, who was a centurion.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: I thought this was very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: It says of Cornelius, he was a devout man and one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the people and prayed to God continually.
SPEAKER_01: Now, all those points there give us references to a godly man.
SPEAKER_01: But at the center, at the core of the verse in the description of Cornelius, is that he feared God and his household.
SPEAKER_01: And that's important.
SPEAKER_01: So, men, you men in this room that have a household, that have a family, God is working in your heart this morning.
SPEAKER_01: He's working in your heart in a deeper way on the fear of God, because what happens when a man, and a woman too, I'm not differentiating, except that, I'm looking at Cornelius, oftentimes through a man who gets a holy fear of God, it explodes in the family.
SPEAKER_01: It explodes through the family in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the love of God's the same way.
SPEAKER_01: When you get a man that discovers the love of God, it explodes in the family.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I could say thing about a woman, but the reason I'm speaking to a man is because for men, it's harder for us.
SPEAKER_01: It just is harder for us.
SPEAKER_01: We are kind of spiritual nutjobs.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we really are.
SPEAKER_01: And women, women just get it better.
SPEAKER_01: You women are just fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: You get it better.
SPEAKER_01: You're so ahead of almost all of us men spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: But God wants to get a hold of men too.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to get it a holy heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we do aim.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna talk about being a worshiper warrior this Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: The code, what I see is the code of being a worshiper warrior.
SPEAKER_01: And that code of an intimate relationship with God at the most vulnerable area.
SPEAKER_01: Here's your most vulnerable area, man, it's your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Men get it oftentimes with our head, but we don't get it with our heart.
SPEAKER_01: And women get it with our heart and they don't get it with their head.
SPEAKER_01: And so you guys know this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we've been married 35 years, Liz and I.
SPEAKER_01: And Liz always comes with tons of heart.
SPEAKER_01: And then sometimes I come with head, and then she says, Well, you're not really trusting God, and and you know, you've got to do this, and she's right sometimes, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And then I say something, and then she's she knows I'm right sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is, is that I believe with men, God wants to get a hold of your heart a new way.
SPEAKER_01: He wants the fire of God on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Women, God's saying He's got in many cases, He needs your heart too, of course.
SPEAKER_01: That's where it all starts.
SPEAKER_01: But he also wants your head.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you guys in the Word, He wants you studying God's Word and understanding the principles of God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: So Cornelius feared God and his household.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we want at the road.
SPEAKER_01: We want whole households that fear God.
SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna start with the man or the woman.
SPEAKER_01: And the challenge before is if that happens, you're gonna have a revival in your house.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna really be in trouble because you're gonna be wrecked from religion.
SPEAKER_01: You when the fire of God comes, you get wrecked from Jerusalem, uh, from uh religion, and you get wrecked for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So the only way I notice to describe this is to say this.
SPEAKER_01: Write this down.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of God and the love of God are the boundaries to intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: So I grew up in a German, Lutheran, liberal home.
SPEAKER_01: Liberal in every way, not morally.
SPEAKER_01: We were very moral, we were very moral, ethical family.
SPEAKER_01: But we were we were liberal theologically, we were liberal politically.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I had for my dad: the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I had the love and the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: I I just always knew that, I felt that, I experienced that.
SPEAKER_01: But he had rules.
SPEAKER_01: Dad had rules, and I had jobs to do, and I had to take out the trash, and I had to clean up my room, and I had to sweep things, and I had jobs, and I was up to no good a lot of the time, and I was in a lot of trouble at school.
SPEAKER_01: I would have been classically called ADD if they had such labels back then.
SPEAKER_01: So I would forget to do my jobs, or I'd make mistakes, or I'd go play with my friends, and forget and come back, and I just remember the proverbial phrase that my mother would use wait till your father comes home.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
SPEAKER_01: And there were suddenly this love that I had for my father changed into dread and fear.
SPEAKER_01: And and mom had a way of not letting me know on Friday because I didn't do the thing, but but dad would be gone on Saturday, and now that I look at it, it was actually there was a strategy to her, and she was very strategic in her thinking.
SPEAKER_01: And so about 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: on you know, Saturday when all everybody's home from school, we're gonna go have fun, we're gonna go play army or do something fun like that.
SPEAKER_01: He would say, wait till your dad comes home.
SPEAKER_01: But that was like at 5 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: So I had that whole day of dread over me because I knew that the discipline was gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: And where we came from, corporal punishment, man.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and it was, and this is not like a little pat pat on the little bottom.
SPEAKER_01: They would take switches down, man, from the back branches, and all those just they hurt, they stung so much.
SPEAKER_01: So, so there's something healthy about discipline.
SPEAKER_01: You guys that are athletes, you women that are athletes in this room, or you work out now, or you um have to discipline your children, you know that you've got to have discipline.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's this love of God side, and there's this fear of God side.
SPEAKER_01: And what we have in the church today is we have kind of more what I would call kind of religious churches where they're probably closer actually to the fear of God, but they can fall into the ditch of legalism.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do this, don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Then on the other side, you got churches that are into the love of God and they emphasize the love and the grace of God, and that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: You can, and in my opinion, you can never over-emphasize the love and the grace of God, but they can tend to fall into being giving us license.
SPEAKER_01: And so then there's no standards.
SPEAKER_01: And so, where what I want at the road, and I think God would have us biblically to believe, is that God would say to us, the a healthy fear of God, and a healthy love of God leads to true, authentic, whole-hearted intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't be wholehearted if you don't have God's whole heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so, a hundred times he mentions the Old Testament, over 20 times he mentions the New Testament, fear of God is really, really important.
SPEAKER_01: And we see an experience of this in a beautiful way in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis is explaining to the children about the mighty lion Aslan.
SPEAKER_01: Quote: People have been people who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now.
SPEAKER_01: For when they tried to look at Aslan's face, they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And then they found they couldn't look at him and they would get all trembly.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's something about the holiness of God and the love of God that properly understood in our walk with God takes us into a new level of intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: I find it interesting the way Moses describes this incredible wholeness in Deuteronomy 10, 12.
SPEAKER_01: He says this, and now, Israel, what does the Lord God require of you?
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a pretty big statement right there.
SPEAKER_01: God actually requires something of us?
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God actually requires something of your life?
SPEAKER_01: That he actually invested in you before you were born, uh, the the talents and the gifts that are in you, that's from him, that you didn't have to work for, you just have them.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys are really good in math.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you guys are really good in personal relationships, some of you are more mechanical, and some are less mechanical.
SPEAKER_01: That's from God.
SPEAKER_01: God made you, he wired you a certain way.
SPEAKER_01: But that he would also require something of us, that he would require that he gets his money's worth, he gets his investment out of you, he does.
SPEAKER_01: He says here, now Israel, what does the Lord God require of you?
SPEAKER_01: But, number one, to fear the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with that.
SPEAKER_01: He starts, you I want you to fear me, fear me, walk in my ways, and I think the assumption here is you can't really walk in his ways if you don't fear him.
SPEAKER_01: And then to love him.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that incredible?
SPEAKER_01: Fear him, walk in his ways, love him, then listen to what it says serve the Lord with all of your heart and soul.
SPEAKER_01: Now I would say, church, that all of that is necessary under the requirements of God.
SPEAKER_01: So God is saying to us, look, I'm built you, I wired you that I have boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: And in my boundaries I have requirements of you that if you'll walk in my ways, if you'll fear being out of intimacy with me, if you will be afraid, actually not afraid of God, but that you would fear being in a place of rebellion through a love relationship with me, you'll serve me with all your heart and mind.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so that fear of God and that love of God are two avenues to intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: Now turn in your Bibles to Exodus 20.
SPEAKER_01: So in your Old Testament, turn to Exodus 20.
SPEAKER_01: We see a tremendous example of Moses on Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: He'd just gotten the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: And what he says to the people is fascinating here.
SPEAKER_01: And I really want us to understand this because we can because you can fall off.
SPEAKER_01: You can fall off on one side or the other.
SPEAKER_01: You can fall off into legalism or you can fall off into license.
SPEAKER_01: And uh different churches struggle with this.
SPEAKER_01: And so this fullness of both.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the deal, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a loving friend, but he's a holy king.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a grace brother, but he's also a disciplining father.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a merciful healer, but he heals us through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So Exodus 20, look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightnings, the flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking.
SPEAKER_01: And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
SPEAKER_01: So they are afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: They're afraid of God here.
SPEAKER_01: The mighty holiness, the power, not unlike we looked at a few weeks ago with Elijah and the prophet to Baal.
SPEAKER_01: The fire of God is all around.
SPEAKER_01: They're trembling.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Then they said to Moses, You speak with God.
SPEAKER_01: You speak with us, and we will hear.
SPEAKER_01: But let not God speak with us lest we die.
SPEAKER_01: So they're afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: They're afraid of a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that that was true in my life, and that was true in many of your lives.
SPEAKER_01: Until you really come to understand the love of God, you're afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that being afraid of God drives us from God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the very thing that happens when we're discipling men and women around here, especially new believers.
SPEAKER_01: They've come to Christ, they're starting to walk with Christ, and you get momentum.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the great things.
SPEAKER_01: If you start obeying God, you start getting momentum in your life.
SPEAKER_01: As you're obeying God and you're asking for the fire of God and you're experiencing the fire of God, you start getting momentum.
SPEAKER_01: And with that momentum, you kind of wake up in the morning, you're pumped, you're excited, then guess what happens?
SPEAKER_01: The enemy is not sitting around going, well, I guess I lost that one.
SPEAKER_01: No, they they actually like put on the mask and the gear and they go after you.
SPEAKER_01: Demons come after you, and they want to pull you out.
SPEAKER_01: They want to derail what God's doing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So now you start to lose momentum, and here's what happens: you start getting afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: You get afraid of being around the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: You get afraid of the word of God because you're under conviction.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is people say, Well, I, you know, they were coming, they're there, they're involved in all these things, they're sharing their faith, and then suddenly they're not coming to church anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly they don't come to the Bible study anymore, they're not in the Word anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, Well, I'm just taking a break.
SPEAKER_01: And so then what happens is they lose the fire of God because they're afraid of God because they've got the conviction of God and they just won't repent.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So they're afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: So Israel, as you know, probably if you've read Exodus, you know they're in rebellion to God right now.
SPEAKER_01: They just built a golden calf.
SPEAKER_01: So they're afraid of God because they have reason to be afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about what Moses says next.
SPEAKER_01: So look at that.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said to the people, do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: So underline or circle that or highlight that.
SPEAKER_01: Do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what he's saying is, don't be afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: For God has come to test you, underline, test you.
SPEAKER_01: That his fear, not your fear, his fear, may be before you so that you may not sin.
SPEAKER_01: So what he's saying is don't be afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's coming from you.
SPEAKER_01: That's your problem.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, God's testing you through your life and what's happening in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't run from that.
SPEAKER_01: Run to the roar is basically what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, press in to the very thing that you're afraid of.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I've never said this because I wasn't smart enough.
SPEAKER_01: But I might say it to someone now.
SPEAKER_01: If you're running from God because you know you're in sin and rebellion to God, let me just tell you that the direction you're going is going to be the worst thing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And I would challenge you to do a 180.
SPEAKER_01: We call it metanoia in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: It means repent and actually run back to what you're afraid of.
SPEAKER_01: Like run back into it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the key to maturity.
SPEAKER_01: That's actually the key to maturity in marriage.
SPEAKER_01: That's the key to maturity in all relationships.
SPEAKER_01: That the very thing you fear oftentimes is what the demonic powers will use to enslave you.
SPEAKER_01: And that if you'll have the courage to turn and face what you fear and actually start walking into it, that's what sets you free.
SPEAKER_01: It's always counterintuitive to your natural self.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying, look, you fear, you fear this or that, and you're afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, fear God, but he's saying, God will put the fear in you.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference.
SPEAKER_01: So we can't create fear of God, but God can create fear through walking in intimacy with him.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, so the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near in the thick darkness where God was.
SPEAKER_01: Draw near to God, as scriptures say, draw near to God, and he will draw near to us.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not talking about being afraid of God, I'm talking about a fear, a healthy fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: God and a healthy love of God that leads us into a personal, vital, dynamic, growing intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: Because the fear of God keeps us from sin.
SPEAKER_01: And the love of God gives us a passion for righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you gotta have both.
SPEAKER_01: Someone might say, well, where does one end and the other begin?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: It's like some people have asked me over the years, you know, what's it, where's mental illness and the demonic?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what where's that?
SPEAKER_01: I said, yes.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where someone who gives themselves continually to drugs or continually to sex or continually to fornication or continually to whatever it might be, and then they start to lose their mind.
SPEAKER_01: They actually start losing their minds, and now they're in Cedar Springs.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, Well man, we could, if we could just go into Cedar Springs and cast out their demons, then they would walk out of there.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't, I haven't seen it happen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that may be because of my lack of faith, but I'm telling you this, they you can so enslave, let the demons enslave you that it actually begins to mess with your chemical structure, your mental structure, and I don't know where one begins and ends.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, you guys, don't go there.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of God keeps you from sin.
SPEAKER_01: And I felt this was really important before we go into Ephesians.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the title next week: Born for War.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians is about you being born for war.
SPEAKER_01: The only way we see victory in this life is a fight.
SPEAKER_01: It is always a fight.
SPEAKER_01: And if we think we can just get in, you know, the raft and go down the river, because now we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, you're living in la land.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: When you receive Christ, you actually get in the stream and you start walking against the current.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Well, where does that strength come from?
SPEAKER_01: Where does that power come from?
SPEAKER_01: Where does the presence to live that life come from?
SPEAKER_01: That's what the book of Ephesians is about.
SPEAKER_01: It is a war manual.
SPEAKER_01: It is the greatest war manual ever written in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It deals with family, it deals with marriage, it deals with spiritual warfare, it deals with our position in Christ and our power that we have from Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be exciting.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be the some of the most exciting sermons you've ever heard.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not because I'm giving them it, because God's already wrote it.
SPEAKER_01: I tell people all the time, I tell you, pastors, you guys should teach God's word chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: And you go, oh, you know, no, I'm more into topical and go.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you think writes a better sermon?
SPEAKER_01: You or God?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_01: So what I like is that God wrote the sermon.
SPEAKER_01: It's called Ephesians.
SPEAKER_01: Starting next week, he wrote the sermon.
SPEAKER_01: It's just his words.
SPEAKER_01: We're just gonna study them and elaborate in them.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to Romans 3, Romans 3, and I think we see a sequence here that gives us an understanding of the battle for the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Man's biggest problem.
SPEAKER_01: Write this down.
SPEAKER_01: Man's biggest problem is no fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what this is what set Martin Luther free in the Protestant Reformation.
SPEAKER_01: So in the 16th century, Martin Luther is a German Lutheran, I mean, not a German Lutheran, a German Catholic monk, understood the holiness of God.
SPEAKER_01: It was everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Everything was about fear and being afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about true fear of God, I'm talking about being afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he crawled on his knees for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: He did penance, penance, penance.
SPEAKER_01: He did everything that he was told to do.
SPEAKER_01: And one day, when he was in Romans, God spoke to him that the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And suddenly the love of God was poured into his heart to understand that he could not do it.
SPEAKER_01: That it was impossible for him to come into the love of God and the righteousness of God in his own power because he was unrighteous at the core.
SPEAKER_01: He had no fear of God at the core.
SPEAKER_01: And Romans 3 was a part of this journey for Martin Luther.
SPEAKER_01: So, starting at verse 10, we're gonna look at a passage from the Old Testament that Paul is writing to the Romans, but I want you to jump down to verse 18 because everything I'm about to read is based on the theme, which is verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 3, 18.
SPEAKER_01: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: There's no fear of God before their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, look back at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: There is none righteous, no, not one.
SPEAKER_01: So many and women, there's nothing in you naturally that is righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Now you say, well, I know a lot of people that are righteous and they don't have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: I know there's right righteous Muslims.
SPEAKER_01: I know there's righteous Buddhists.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's true.
SPEAKER_01: Because, listen now, call it civil righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Call it civil good, call it common good.
SPEAKER_01: Many have called it different things, but we are all of one blood, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you're from Asia, whether you're from Africa, whether you're from America, we're all of one blood.
SPEAKER_01: We're all from Adam.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're all created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: We all come from Adam.
SPEAKER_01: So there is something good in the sense that there's something God-like within all of us.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking, though, of a righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There is none righteous, not one.
SPEAKER_01: There is none who understands.
SPEAKER_01: There is none who seeks after God.
SPEAKER_01: They've all turned aside.
SPEAKER_01: They've come together and become unprofitable, and there's none who does good.
SPEAKER_01: No, not even one.
SPEAKER_01: So I remember, you remember if you can go back to those days, and some of you are actually in them right now because you're new to the Lord, where you didn't understand anything.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't understand God's word.
SPEAKER_01: You thought it was the most boring book in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and you'd read it, and there's professors, there's seminary professors who know God's word, teach God's word, but they don't really understand it because they're not born again.
SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, this understanding, this epinosis, this experiential wisdom that comes from God, you can't have without the Holy Spirit living within you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, their throat is an open tomb, and their tongues they've practiced deceit.
SPEAKER_01: The poison of asp is under their lips.
SPEAKER_01: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
SPEAKER_01: Their feet are swift to shed blood.
SPEAKER_01: Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.
SPEAKER_01: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is trying to do here is say, men and women, you don't have anything of yourself that can earn or be used in any way as a payment for us as sinners to have a relationship with Holy God.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have it.
SPEAKER_01: We can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: So within us, at the very core and nature of who we are, is we don't fear God.
SPEAKER_01: But we're afraid of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so that being afraid of God causes us not to seek God because we think in terms of judgment instead of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Now it continues.
SPEAKER_01: So man's biggest problem is no fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Man's biggest need is to have the fear of God, a proper fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness of God starts with faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So look down at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: So following Romans 3, now go down to verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe, for there's no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of God starts with faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of God begins with believing in what Christ did through shedding of his blood at Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: At Calvary, he took all that's not good about us.
SPEAKER_01: That being afraid of God in our spirit that's very natural to all of us here.
SPEAKER_01: He took that, and when we put our faith in him, when we trust in him, he replaces the replacement, he replaces that being afraid of God, being scared of God, and he puts in it the love of God with the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: He gives you the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: See, you can't have a proper fear of God without the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: It all starts with the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: God demonstrates his own love toward us and that when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: It's the love of God that draws us to him.
SPEAKER_01: And when we come into that, he also deposits, it's supernatural, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: It's supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: He deposits a fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't study the fear of God, if you don't meditate even in the fear of God, you lose the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so because of that, we become undisciplined.
SPEAKER_01: We become wayward because we don't know what pleases God.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what's the beauty of being in God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we always talk about it constantly here.
SPEAKER_01: Be in God's Word, study God's word, meditate in God's word, because the word of God here gives us the boundaries of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the route to blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And if it doesn't bother you at all, if you're involved in sin on a regular basis, then obviously God wants to work in such a way that He can release the love of God and the fear of God into you so that you're convicted by God and you can walk in joy.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about joy.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's hard, because, you know, we think the joy's out there and it's a bait and switch.
SPEAKER_01: It's always a bait and switch.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's um chocolate-covered garlic.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: It's like you you bite, ah, it looks really good, you know, it's a it's a mounds bar, it's uh Snickers, and then you bite into it, and it's like garlic and salt, or you know, whatever you can think of as like the worst thing, cayenne pepper.
SPEAKER_01: And you just bite in, ah, you know, but that's the way sin is.
SPEAKER_01: Is it looks so good, it looks so moist, it looks so inviting, and you kind of run to it.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, can anything, I heard a song one time say, could anything that feels so good be that wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: I would say all sin feels really good and it's always wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it it you but it's always got chocolate on it, but it's a bait and switch.
SPEAKER_01: So you take a bite and you go, ah.
SPEAKER_01: And then some of you, you know, you've gone too far, and so you're at that place, and God wants you to understand that the real route to joy, the real route to freedom, is the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, so walking in his discipline.
SPEAKER_01: So, my dad, I mean, we had those rules at our house, and it wasn't so much that he needed that my mom could do anything.
SPEAKER_01: My mom could clean the house, run a women's meeting, write her messages for speaking on parenting with half of her brain tied behind her back.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's just the way she was.
SPEAKER_01: So they didn't give us chores so that the chores would get done, because my mom could have done them in five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: They did it, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they were maturing us.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't need your obedience, but God wants you to be free.
SPEAKER_01: And the freedom comes through the obedience that comes through the discipline of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you keep, if you keep running from that and chafing from that, you're just gonna continue to be this kind of weak little noodly poop Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like spaghetti.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some of us are like spaghetti.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so you just drop it and yet the scriptures say stand.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians says stand.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you stand?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you stand by strengthening your inner resolve to obey God, to love him, do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's really, it's really good.
SPEAKER_01: It's really it's really joyful.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say it's fun.
SPEAKER_01: It's not fun.
SPEAKER_01: When you're fly fishing and you catch trout, you can tell the difference between stalked trout and wild trout.
SPEAKER_01: And the way you can tell is by the color.
SPEAKER_01: And you can take a trout that you've caught and you'll pull it out, and it's kind of pale, a pale-looking rainbow trout.
SPEAKER_01: Came from some farm where they just threw little pellets to them, and then some helicopter went up and just dropped them in the stream.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I like catching them and everything, and it's great.
SPEAKER_01: But they don't have the fight, they don't have the drive, and they don't have the beauty.
SPEAKER_01: But then you'll get this one, it's like, whoa, and it's like two inches smaller than the other one, but this sucker can fight, and you get him out, and the color is like night and day, but it's a rainbow trout too.
SPEAKER_01: The difference is that the wild trout had to fight, it had to battle for survival.
SPEAKER_01: There's raccoons that come around, you know.
SPEAKER_01: There's other fish that are wanting, the bigger fish that want to come after them, and they're predators and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they had to fight, and there's a beauty to the fight.
SPEAKER_01: Church, there's a beauty to the battle.
SPEAKER_01: God's making you beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Run to the roar, run to the thing you fear most.
SPEAKER_01: And with the love of God, it sets us free.
SPEAKER_01: Amazing what the Bible says about the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just run through a few of these.
SPEAKER_01: Why is the fear of God so important?
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord, it's the scriptures say in Proverbs, is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: You can't know God's wisdom without having a godly knowledge, without the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: This means that as you understand things, listen, you have anointed thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that incredible?
SPEAKER_01: You have anointed thinking.
SPEAKER_01: So David said, I'm anointed with greater knowledge than my teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know, young people, that you can, by the fear of God, you can walk into your chemistry class, you can walk into your uh your physical science class because you believe what the Bible says, and you have more knowledge than some of your teachers.
SPEAKER_01: That's the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're doing the Worldview Conference.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing the Worldview Conference, the unshakable kingdom, the unshakable worldview that God wants to give us, because God wants us to walk in the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a confidence that comes when you're getting knowledge that's anointed by God because you fear him, you read his word, you listen, and he speaks to you.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 66, 5.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word.
SPEAKER_01: Man, what a powerful passage.
SPEAKER_01: That we we fear God so much that as we come to his word, we know he's gonna speak to us, and we and we almost like tremble at his word.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to give you a holy trembling for his word.
SPEAKER_01: It'll set you free.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord is clean.
SPEAKER_01: So when we have the fear of the Lord, we want purity in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We're going after purity in our life.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord leads to praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord brings riches and honor.
SPEAKER_01: The secret of the Lord is revealed to those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: How many would like to know the secret of the Lord for your life?
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize there's secrets that you don't know?
SPEAKER_01: There are secrets that is in God's heart, and he's not going to deposit them in you unless you seek him for it.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's in you seeking him that he makes you a beautiful vessel.
SPEAKER_01: It's in your seeking him to walk in the fear of God that as you do that, God begins to grab you.
SPEAKER_01: It's usually not like a big dump.
SPEAKER_01: It's just little things that God does, intimations of the future.
SPEAKER_01: Intimations of something he's going to do in the future.
SPEAKER_01: That's the secret of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He gives the secrets of his desires for your life through people who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: The eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't want the eye of the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know who doesn't, those who don't fear God.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not fearing God, then you don't want the eye of the Lord on you.
SPEAKER_01: The mercy of the Lord is upon those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: How awesome is that! The fear of the Lord brings life.
SPEAKER_01: The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord favors those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: So as the worship team comes up, I want to give you a couple thoughts, jot these down, and this is really important.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, a challenge to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to come and show you the power and blessing of the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to show you this week the power and blessing of the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I would do: do a phrase study, fear of the Lord or fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Fear of the Lord, fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's about 50 references in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Just put that in.
SPEAKER_01: You can just do it in a Google search.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have it.
SPEAKER_01: And then write to put those down and then begin to write down what God says to you about the fear of God.
SPEAKER_01: Number two.
SPEAKER_01: Worship.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to worship right now.
SPEAKER_01: Take that anointing from Brian and from our team home and worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Young people.
SPEAKER_01: Your generation is the most worshipful generation, maybe, in all of church history.
SPEAKER_01: There's more worship stuff coming out all the time from all these different places.
SPEAKER_01: New worship.
SPEAKER_01: Almost all young people worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you parents are going, oh, that's the weirdest worship I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_01: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Get over it.
SPEAKER_01: Because God looks at the heart, not the instruments, not the other things, but He looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And you guys are the most worshipful generation.
SPEAKER_01: And so go at it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, open your laptop and worship God every day and watch what God will do.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, if you're a man here, come to AIM on Tuesday morning.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be in here because we've outgrown the chapel, and I'm going to be talking about the Worshiper Warrior Code.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.