In the sermon 'The Happy Men Who Fear Their God' by Scott Brown, the focus is on understanding the concept of fearing God, specifically exploring different types of fear: natural, filial, and servile. Filial fear is described as a positive form of fear born out of love and reverence for God, while servile fear is a negative fear that leads to avoidance of God. The sermon references Psalm 112 to discuss the blessings and characteristics of a man who fears God, such as graciousness, stability, and freedom from fear of bad news. It outlines twelve promises for those who fear God, including promises of goodness, instruction, God's watchful eye, protection, mercy, provision, happiness, help, fulfillment, pleasure, multiple blessings, and healing. A unique feature of the gathering is the encouragement of father-son discussions to deepen understanding and connection through shared experiences of faith.

Okay, I hope you have an outline in front of you of what I'm going to cover here. But our whole gathering here tonight and tomorrow is going to focus on men who fear their God. And it's critical that we're able to see particular men in particular moments in their life. And what happens to men is that they find themselves in particular moments. They find themselves in these sort of freeze-frame moments.

And what they do in that moment, what they're thinking about, where their hearts, where their minds are, what their intentions are, is so critical. And so we have identified a number of men who found themselves either in moments or were examples of what it means to fear God. And so even tonight, Mike Davenport is going to come and talk about Adam, the man whose fear drove him to hide from God. And Paul Carrington is going to speak about Noah, the man who built an ark out of godly fear. You just might ask, if I feared God with all my heart, what would I build?

And Jason Dome tonight is going to come and talk about Abraham, the man who walked by faith in Genesis 22 12. So that's what we have tonight here and I'm going to give just a brief introduction to the time and you have an outline in front of you. And one of the unusual features of this gathering, we've never done what we're gonna do here before, and that is that the preachers are gonna give 20-minute messages. And then they're going to take a break and fathers and sons are going to talk about those messages. And that's how we're going to organize the entire time together.

So shorter messages and also time for fathers and sons to talk. So we really pray that the Lord would use it to bind us together to help us to to walk together in the fear of God. So that's what we're gonna do. We've never done anything like it so we'll see how it goes we may end up you may end up saying that was terrible would you please go back to you know our log messages I don't know we'll find out but let's before we begin let's pray oh lord we thank you for gathering us together We thank you that you have created us for your glory. We thank you that you speak into our hearts, that you come to us, and that you reveal yourself to us.

And I pray that you would do such a thing here, that we would find ourselves before you under your watchful eye, being so aware that you are with us. Oh Lord, I pray that you would lead us in this time and open up our eyes to see wondrous things from your law." Well, as you can see in your outline, the first thing I'd like to do is try to define the fear of God. And what we learn from this definition that I'm going to give you is that not all fear is bad. There are four kinds of fear that I want to identify. Two of them are good and two of them are bad.

There's the natural fear that everyone experiences. A building is getting ready to come down and you run. It's not really such a bad kind of fear. There's a legitimate reason for it. Secondly, there is what is called filial fear and This is the fear of the believer.

Martin Luther coined the term filial fear and servile fear to refer to different kinds of fear of God. And filial fear is the fear of the believer. And it's the fear of adoration and love. It's the fear that Solomon spoke about when he said that the fear of God was the whole duty of man and what Isaiah 33 verse 6 said was fear is a treasure. And this is a fear that comes from love.

This is filial fear. Sinclair Ferguson defined it like this. That indefinable mixture of reverence, fear, pleasure, joy, and awe, which fills our hearts when we realize who God is and what He has done. And So this kind of fear is, it's the fear that is affectionate. It's reverential.

It's humble. It's awestruck. It's joyful. It honors God. It's thankful in its worship.

I want to say that the fear of God that is a filial fear is a delighted, awestruckedness, that you are delighted and you're awestruck with him. And as a result, you fear him, but it's a pleasing kind of fear. And it's the kind of fear that's born out of true heartfelt faith that desires the presence of the Creator. It's the kind of fear that makes you want to run to Him, not away from Him. And it's also a fear that has a sense of one's own sinfulness and a desire to turn away from sinfulness.

That's filial fear. And then you have servile fear. This is the fear of the unbeliever. This is the fear of the person that does not want God. It's the fear that is contrary to God and hates God.

It's the kind of fear that the man in Jesus' parable communicated, the parable of the talents who hid his talent in the ground. He didn't multiply his talent. He didn't want to multiply it for his master. And when his master came, he said, I knew you were a harsh man. That's servile fear.

Where the view of God is that he has nothing good for you. So those are the two kinds of fear. And I'd like for us to take a look at Psalm 112 because it speaks of the heart of the matter, of how we want to begin our time together. And Psalm 112, verse one, says, praise the Lord, blessed is the man who fears the Lord who delights greatly in his commandments And here we learn that the fear of God is delighting, but it's more than just delighting. It's delighting greatly.

It's the increased delight that comes from really knowing him. And if you look at Webster's 1828 dictionary, you'll find that the definition that Webster gives is almost exactly like the lexical definition in a Greek lexicon when he uses this word delight. A high degree of pleasure or satisfaction of mind, as you see in Psalm 1, his delight is in the fear of the Lord. It's this kind of delight, it's pleasure, it's desire, it's satisfaction. And this is the kind of fear that we're talking about.

It's a delighted, awestruckedness where you cannot believe that you're in the presence of such a wonderful being, one who loves you, one who's created all that there is and and so you are awestruck. Now in Psalm 112 there's this disclosure of the blessings of the fear of God. And it's my job at the beginning here, it's just a remind us of the blessings that are stated in the Bible regarding the fear of God. And the first thing that we learn is in the first verse that it's a fear of delight, we've already covered that, but it's also a fear that blesses a family. Look at verses two through four.

His descendants will be mighty on the earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Unto the upright there arises light in darkness." So there's tremendous blessing in the family of the man who fears the Lord. And then in verses 4 through 10, the psalm speaks of the kind of man that God creates in his fear.

And what we read here is that he is gracious. The fear of God produces graciousness. Compassionate. He says here that this man is full of compassion. Next, he says that he is righteous.

Next, he says that he is generous. He says, a good man deals graciously and lends. And then next we see that he's wise, that the fear of God creates a man who's like this. He will guide his affairs with discretion. The fear of God in your soul gives you discretion.

It gives you the ability to look at situations and make decisions about which one is the right one. And then he says that this man is stable in verse 6. Surely, he will never be shaken. The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. And then, next in verses 7 through 8, we learn that he's unafraid of bad news.

Are you afraid of bad news? Are you fearing that you might get some announcement of some kind that would do you harm. Well, the man who fears God doesn't have to worry about the fear of man, because the fear of God destroys the fear of man in his heart. And he fears God, and he fears God alone. And that's why the psalmist says in verse 7, he will not be afraid of evil tidings.

He's unafraid of bad news. What a blessing it is to be a man who's unafraid of bad news. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established.

He will not be afraid until he sees his desire on his enemies. In other words, he believes that God is going to deal with all of his enemies in his own way. He's not afraid of his enemies at all. He's afraid of God and that actually destroys all of his fears. And then he's also generous.

In verse 9, he is dispersed abroad. He's given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor. And then the wicked will be vexed.

Verse 10. The wicked will see it and be grieved. He will gnash his teeth and melt away, and the desire of the wicked shall perish." And what he's saying is that when a man fears God, he makes the wicked angry, indignant, vexed, provoked. That's exactly what that word means, that they are grieved. They're in verse 10.

So these are the things that take place in in a man who fears God and There are so many places in scripture that speak of the blessings of the fear of God. In fact, I'm going to get to them here right now. I want to give you 12 promises to those who fear God. You've got them listed right there in your outline. But I'd just like to read these promises.

Just take a deep breath, soak it in, and consider these marvelous promises of God for those who fear Him. First of all, there's the promise of goodness for those who fear him. That's in Psalm 31 verse 19. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. The idea is that when you fear the Lord, God is in his mercy.

He's laying up blessings for you. To lay up means he's accumulating them. In other words, he doesn't necessarily give them to you at the moment But he's he's he's laying them up. He's preparing them for you You don't see them But God is doing that for those who honor him with this kind of filial fear. The second promise is this.

It's the promise of instruction. And here the psalmist promises that the men who fear God will be instructed. In other words, they'll have right knowledge in what they do. Psalm 25, 12. Who is the man that fears the Lord?

Him shall he teach in the way he chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant." God promises to reveal his will to those who fear Him. You know, and like John said in the book of Revelation, he said, who would not fear Him? Who would not want to fear such a good God?

And then the third is a promise of God's watchful eye toward those who fear God. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy. This is a picture of a man who is so delighted to live under the shadow of God's wings. A man who's conscious of God in his conversations and his goings and comings. He has a consciousness of the presence of God.

This is the most blessed thing that can happen to a person, is to walk through this life and know that God is watching you, that his eye is on you, like the song says, his eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me. Now, those who have a servile fear do not want God watching them. But if you love God, you will want Him to watch you. You will want to be aware of His eye upon you. And then, number four, this to me is one of the most powerful verses on the fear of God, Psalm 34, 7 through 9, where we learn that those who fear the Lord have a promise of the angel of the Lord in camping around them and delivering them.

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him. Do you know what encamps means? Do You know what that means, little boys especially? Well, it's like camping. It's like the angel of the Lord is camped.

And when you're in a camp, it's movable. And you move, you move your camp. That's the whole idea. And here he says that the angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear him and He delivers them and Then he says oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. There is no want to those who fear him." This is a promise of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, the captain of all the armies of heaven actually encamping around you. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the One who rules all the forces of heaven, and He deploys those forces, and He encamps around you as you fear Him. And then number five, Psalm 103 verse 11 through 13 and verse 17.

This is a promise of great mercy for those who fear God. For as high as, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children's children.

And then the sixth promise is the promise of food for those who fear Him. Psalm 111, 5, He has given food to those who fear him. He will ever be mindful of his covenant. And then number seven, the promise of happiness to those who fear the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. Number eight, the promise of God's help for those great and small who fear God. Psalm 115 verse 11, you who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.

Number nine, the promise of God fulfilling the desire to hear the cry of those who fear God. Psalm 145 verse 19, he will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him, He will also hear their cry and will save them. Number 10, the promise of God's pleasure on those who fear Him. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy. And then 11, the promise of multiple blessings for those who fear God.

Malachi 3.16, notice the different blessings that are in this verse. Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. There's this whole aspect of the fear of God in which the Christian is meditating upon his name. This is one of the most helpful things to do as you walk through the day, is to be constantly meditating upon him, to be filling your mind up with the knowledge of his will.

And that really is the fear of God, that is filial fear. Number 12, the promise of healing and health for those who fear God. Malachi 4-2. But to you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. What marvelous promises.

There are many blessings that fall on the heads of those who fear God, that they fear Him in love, they fear Him by their adoration, They fear Him because they want Him. They fear Him because they desire His ways. They don't want to run from Him. Now, this is the most important question. How do you fear God?

Do you fear God with a servile fear? Are you just afraid of Him? Are you afraid that He's going to nail you? Or do you love Him because you know He loves you? And you want Him because you know He is all good?

And the most important question in life is that one. What kind of fear do you have? And I pray that as these men deliver messages, we'll have a greater understanding of What it means when a man fears God as we look at these various snapshots So we're gonna pause right now take a 10 minute break We want to give fathers and sons a few minutes together to talk Now one thing we like to encourage fathers to do at these Father-Son retreats is to stay with your son. It's a lot easier to talk to the old guys, you know, to look eyeball to eyeball with people that are your own age. We want to try to resist, We want to encourage you to resist that gravitational force and to be with your son.

Walk with your son through this time and you'll have many opportunities, particularly as we have these sessions. You're going to have, you know, I haven't calculated how much time it is, but you're gonna have lots of really private time With your son discussing these things and we pray that God really really uses it now. I've Created some questions that fathers and sons can discuss We want you to discuss delighting in the Lord. We want you to discuss how you are awestruck by the Lord and to share those things together. Okay, So you got 10 minutes.