In Scott Brown's sermon 'Approaching Scripture in the Fear of God - The 1689 SLBC 1:8', he explores how believers should read and understand the scriptures through the lens of the fear of God, as mentioned in the Baptist Confession. Brown discusses the concept of the fear of God, differentiating between natural, filial, servile, and sinful fears. Filial fear, characterized by reverence, awe, and love, is contrasted with servile fear, which is rooted in distrust and aversion. Brown urges believers to approach scripture with a heart full of affectionate reverence, humble awe, joyful honor, and thankful worship, emphasizing a reading that brings transformation through affection, faith, pleasure, and obedience. He draws on historical and modern resources to provide practical advice for engaging with sermons and scripture, highlighting the importance of a church community in reinforcing these practices. Brown concludes by encouraging believers to read scripture joyfully and fearfully, aligning with God's design for a joyful, wise, and heart-rejoicing community.

Okay, so we're going through the Baptist confession and tonight and then the next two successive Sunday nights, we're going to be looking at the Baptist confession but through a particular lens, and that is the lens of the fear of God because the fear of God is mentioned in the confession. And so tonight what I'd like to do is I would like to speak of first of all what is the fear of God and what does it mean to find ourselves in harmony with what the confession says that we read and search the scripture in the fear of God now if you have an outline in front of you you'll see that section in the confession in the eighth paragraph in the first chapter we just finished the first chapter last week, and so in this paragraph you'll see this. Then in session two next week we'll answer the question, what does it mean to live out sanctification with fear? And that appears in chapter 13 paragraph 3 and then in the following Sunday the third what is ungodly fear and what does it mean to be delivered from ungodly fear and that is found in chapter 21 in paragraphs 1 and in 3.

So that's where we're going with this. So now as you can see before you is chapter 1 of the Baptist Confession on the Holy Scriptures And as you'll see marked in blue, I believe it's in blue, yes it is in your outlines, you'll see the phrase that we're going to be dealing with tonight, that we are commanded in the fear of God to read and to search the scripture. So I'd like to explain what is the fear of God and what does it mean to read and to search the scripture in the fear of God. It really is a time for us to consider how it is that we both read and we hear the Word of God. I'd like for us all to sort of go through a season here tonight of just considering and reconsidering how we hear the scriptures, how we read the scriptures, because there's a particular approach that's defined here that is characterized by the fear of God you search and you read by the fear of God and so what does it mean to do such a thing you know Is the Word of God designed to make you scared?

Is that the kind of fear that he's talking about? Well, perhaps. But there's a deeper understanding of what it means to read and to search out the scriptures in the fear of God. Think of how often you find yourselves reading or hearing the word of God or you're searching out the scriptures. In my life, the way that my schedule is governed, I find myself in the word of God a lot.

And it's been very helpful to me to ask the question, am I reading it in fear? In the kind of fear that's spoken of here. Can there be too much familiarity in a casual approach to it? Or has that happened in your family? Or you know, has it happened even in our church?

To take it casually rather than with the kind of fear that's spoken of here. And so I want to speak about the fear of God, and I want to identify four kinds of fear very quickly. And First of all, there's natural fear, the fear that everyone experiences. You know, not all fear is bad. You know, Solomon said that the wise man sees danger and he delivers himself from it.

So there's a certain kind of fear that is appropriate and necessary for surviving in this world. And it might cause you to run, it might cause you to duck. There are different kinds of fear that are actually good. So that's one kind of fear. Then there is the filial fear of the believer, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.

Thirdly, there's the servile fear of the unbeliever. And then fourthly, there is the sinful fear of the believer. Now, one of these kinds of fear is the sweetest of them all. And Isaiah called the fear of God a treasure. Solomon said that the fear of God was the whole duty of man in Ecclesiastes 12 13.

Now having dispensed with this natural fear that you would necessarily have if a building was falling down and you would run and you would in fear get out of there. The next two types of fear are filial fear and servile fear. Now Martin Luther actually coined these two terms of filial fear and servile fear. And it seems like pastors and scholars and preachers have continued to use this term for these two kinds of fear. And so servile fear is the fear of the unbeliever.

It's the fear that does not want God. It's the fear that is contrary to God and therefore hates God. There's an aversion, a distrust of God in this kind of person. You know remember the parable of the talents and the one who did not multiply his talents. When he was asked about why he didn't multiply them, he said, I knew you were a harsh man.

Well, that was his view of God. He had a completely corrupt view of God. He thought God was a harmful kind of a being toward him. But this is the kind of fear of the unbeliever. It's a fear that has a high view of self, a low view of God, a low view of sin, and a distorted view of God.

It's the kind of fear that turns you away. That's servile fear. It's the fear that makes you want to get away from him. On the other hand, there's filial fear. This is the fear of the believer, and it's the fear that comes from love and for adoration.

I like the way that Sinclair Ferguson speaks of this. He says, this kind of fear is 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 for us. This is the fear of the adoration of God. John Murray explained it this way, the fear which constrains adoration and love, that consists in awe, reverence, honor and worship. That is the reflex of our consciousness of the transcendent majesty and the holiness of God John Bunyan called this kind of fear a weighty and great grace That it's a beautiful kind of thing the English Puritan George Swinick believed that the fear of God and The worship of God were the same Because in worship you give him what he said was your hottest love, your highest joy, your deepest sorrow, your strongest faith, and the greatest fear.

He's saying that all those things are mixed in this filial fear of God. It is the kind of fear that makes you love more, makes you more attracted, wanting to be nearer to the object of that fear. And that's why John Bunyan said, happy is that man that fears always. It shall be well with them that fear God. Fear therefore.

The spirit of the fear of the Lord is a grace that greatly beautifies a Christian, his words and in all his ways." And then, of course, Charles Spurgeon said it as beautifully, I think, as anyone. But what is this fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father's law. His wrath is so bitter and his love is so sweet that hints springs an earnest desire to please him and because of the danger of coming short from his own weakness and temptations a Holy watchfulness and fear that we might not sin against him This is the kind of fear that enters the mind of the Christian So it's a fear that is inclined toward the Lord and it's a it's a pleasing Kind of fear. It's not it's not stricken with Terror rather it is stricken with a kind of awe but it's the kind of awe that really is the source of all respect and happy relationship the desire to be with that one that is the fear of God for the Christian Notice how different that is from the kind of servile fear of the non-christian.

Now I'm going to give you sort of my own amalgamated definition of this, taking the words of Bunyan and Spurgeon and others who have spoken about the fear of God and and I want to give you this definition because I hope it'll help us to understand that it is in this kind of fear That we read and we search out the scriptures This is the disposition that we ought to take when the Word of God is before us. When we in the morning open up the Word of God, when we read it in our family, when it's opened up in the meeting of the church, this is the kind of fear that we ought to read and search it out. So, the fear of God is that affectionate reverence, humble awe, joyful honor, and thankful worship that arises out of a sense of the mercy and the love of God. This kind of fear is born out of a true and heartfelt faith in the perfection of God. Can you imagine yourself reading scripture like that?

It finds pleasure and joy in the matchless majesty, holiness, and goodness of God. It causes an affectionate inclination toward God like a child happily and humbly inclines his heart to a dear parent. The fear of God in the heart inspires a heartfelt belief in his loving kindness and stands in praise of his goodness such that the child does not want to displease him. This fear is found in the one who has a sense of his Sinfulness and the bitterness of sin and the desire to escape the defilements of it so That language really draws from the corpus of language that various I think faithful pastors and theologians have tried to use. Now what does that mean for us when we open up the Word of God?

What does that mean? The first thing is affection. How do we read it and search it? First of all with affection. So to read in the fear of God is to have that affectionate reverence that humble awe Before the holy scriptures to find ourselves in a in a joyful honor in a thankful worship that arises out of a sense of the mercy and the love of God.

Read the scriptures like that. Affection. Read it with affection. Next time you sit down, just ask, is my heart affectionate toward it? Or am I just going through the motions you know our family would read the Bible through every year for many years one of the things that I found that there were times when it seemed like we were just doing it by rote.

It was such long scripture we had to sort of stop and say wait a minute you know we're not thinking about this right. So affection. Secondly, faith. Read it with faith. This kind of reading is born out of a true and a heartfelt faith in the perfection of God.

That you know His Word is true. And you have faith. It actually can change you. Even you. It can even move your heart.

It can change your mind. It can shift your emotions. It can change your attitudes It can change you from discouragement to hope it can change you from hatred to love the Word of God is powerful so read it with faith and Then Pleasure read it with pleasure It's the kind of reading that finds pleasure and joy in the matchless majesty and the holiness and the goodness of God. And then obedience. It's the kind of reading that inspires a heartfelt belief in God's loving kindness and it stands in praise of his goodness such that the child does not want to displease him.

That the words are so beautiful, that the dangers are so great of setting it aside, that one would want to obey. To read it for obedience. To look in the mirror and be changed. Not to look in the mirror and just move on. So this is what it means to read and to search out the Word of God in fear.

And that's what the confession is asking us to consider. You know, these paragraphs that describe so beautifully the power and the beauty of the Word of God, there is a way that we engage in its power and in its beauty and it's through these ways. This is the way that we hear the Word of God. Now I want to identify a number of other ideas that will help us to think about how we listen to sermons and relate to the Word of God in its various contexts that it comes to us. And I've identified four resources that are there for you and that remain, I'm just gonna give you sort of an overview of some of these things.

So I think they're very helpful. We gather together to hear the preaching of the Word of God quite regularly. If you hear two sermons a week, then you'll probably listen to about 7, 000 sermons in your lifetime. And the Lord will hold you account for every one that you've heard. And so we ought to listen carefully and in a spirit of fear.

So The first one I want to direct you to is Richard Baxter. And Baxter has written a short piece that he called, Listening to a Sermon. This is found in the Christian directory under the heading, Directions for Profitably Hearing the Word Preached. And The first thing that he says is come not to hear with a careless heart Come to hear as if it was something that concerned the very bottom of your soul and he says take it with a sense of unspeakable weight of necessity and that you should hear in such a way that you're not careless about it. You know, when the Word of God is open in a church, there should be a hush that God Almighty is getting ready to speak.

They're the purest words you will ever hear on a Sunday. Those words that are read. And those who read the scriptures should be very careful to recognize how precious it is and how careful they ought to be with it when they read it. That they ought to know it very well and speak it with their whole heart. He says then make it your work to apply the Word as you are hearing it.

In other words, as you're listening to it, you're thinking of ways that you apply it. Things are said, things come to your mind, and you consider ways that you will apply the Word of God. You know in the book of Ecclesiastes we learned that one of the critical matters of being involved in the worship of God is that you take oaths. It's a practice that has fallen out of use. But the old writers used to encourage the churches to hear the word preached and then take oaths.

In other words, bring these matters before God and seriously deal with them in your life. Don't just let them go in one ear and out the other. And then he says don't cast all on the minister. In other words, don't leave it all to the minister to carry you along in the preaching. Don't think that he is the only one working.

You also too must labor in order to hear. He says that you can carry on what he says further If you don't just leave the work all to him and then he says this I really like this language I resonate with this language for different reasons chew the cud and call up all when you come home in secret he's using you know of course cow language here and by meditation preach it over to yourselves if it were coldly delivered by the preacher do you preach it more earnestly over your own heart you know you may not hear it exactly the way you want to hear it the first time, but you can improve upon it by the work of the Spirit of God in your life. So that's Baxter, okay? Now I want to turn to George Whitefield. George Whitefield wrote a short piece called How to Listen to a Sermon and he's speaking about how you get the most out of what the preacher might say and so He just urges us to carefully listen.

And then the first admonition he brings is, come to hear not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty. In other words, come to do your duty. Not just passively to be entertained, or just to be part of something. Come to do your duty. To hear it and then do it.

Secondly, give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God. And he gives the analogy that if an earthly king came and spoke to your assembly you would listen but you're the king of kings and the Lord of Lords has come and so you should give heed to those things because of the source of the message that is the king himself and Then number three he said do not even entertain the least prejudiced against the minister. He's saying that if you have a bad attitude, if you have some sinful barrier that exists, some unreconciled problem, you ought to turn from it and do not entertain the least prejudice. You know, there's so many reasons that you can have prejudice against your preachers. Preachers don't say everything perfectly.

Preachers don't know everything perfectly. Preachers often get things wrong. All preachers have a particular bent. I don't know if you've ever noticed that, you know, in preachers. In many men you'll say, well, he always says this in his sermons.

Have you ever heard John Piper? Every John Piper sermon is really about one thing. That God is so massively wonderful and good, you can only find your pleasure in him that's it every sermon says that I don't despise it I think it's wonderful but every preacher has a particular bent you shouldn't despise it that's what he's saying and then Be careful not to depend too much on the preacher or think more highly of them than you ought to think. That we ought not prefer one another too much and place all our trust in them. And then number five, make particular application to your own hearts and everything that's delivered.

Number six, pray to the Lord before, during, and after every sermon. Those are the critical matters for George Whitefield. Now, there's a modern book that was written by Ken Rainey called Expository Listening. It's a very fine book. I have it over here in my library.

But he speaks about how one would prepare oneself for the preaching of the Word of God. And he says this, the sermon does not begin when the preacher opens his mouth, It starts the week before. So then he gives various pieces of advice for preparing yourself to hear the preaching of the word so that you might multiply its impact and sweeten its use in your life. And he says, first confess your sins, reduce your media intake, plan ahead and schedule your week around the ministry of the Word. He says be consistent in church attendance so that you can follow the preaching and go to church with a teachable and expectant heart.

Worship with all your heart, fight off distractions, and listen with diligent discernment. Those are the things that he speaks of. And he makes it clear that we ought to have a careful examination of ourselves when we hear the word of God. That we should be looking to ourselves, not to our neighbors. This is one of the greatest problems that we have.

We think about how the word of God applies to everyone else, and somehow It has just gone right over our heads when God meant it to pierce our hearts. So there is Ken Ramey, great little book. Maybe you should go get it and read it. I think it's a really helpful piece. It's not very long, but really It's really, really practical.

David Murray, you can see this on the internet. You can Google it. David Murray, 20 helps for listening to a sermon. And I'm just going to give you the 20 real quick here, just so you get a flavor for it. And I think these things really do work to help us to read the Word of God and hear the Word of God and search the Word of God out in fear that we don't take it casually.

Number one, come to church in good time to get calm, settled, and focused. So come and don't be rushing in. Number two, respect the silence of the sanctuary. Number three, engage your body and soul in worship and in prayer. Stir up your whole body and mind and soul in worship before the sermon.

Number four, tell yourself that God is about to speak. Number five, recognize that this is a team effort and take personal responsibility for your part. Number six, take brief notes, enough to concentrate but not so many that it turns into a lecture that only engages your head. I think that's really important. You know a lot of people in our church take notes.

I'm grateful for it but there's a trap in taking notes. You're just trying to get it down rather than saying, Oh Lord, fill my soul. Help me. Illuminate. Comfort.

Teach me. Guide me. Revert. Divert me. Whatever, you know.

A heart that's really ready for that is really critical and often if you're taking two meticulous notes You can often miss that that's David Murray's point He says check that the preacher is preaching the word of God He says not with a critical pharisaical spirit with a discerning and Berean spirit number eight accept that there will be times when the word hurts don't react against it don't shut down number nine build up goodwill toward the preacher ill will or malice toward the preacher is a hardener of the heart and it blocks the word. Number 10, try to find one thing to benefit from. The next one, 11, after the sermon, talk about it with others. And then after the sermon, 12, put it into practice. And then after the sermon, 13, be patient in looking for results.

14, work on your soil. Soil can change from bad to good to very good and we're responsible for preparing the soil of our hearts. Number 15, give feedback. Encourage the preachers from time to time with specifics about how particular sermons helped you. So Those are the 20 things that he recommends.

Now, so consider your life as one who reads scripture personally. The very first thing that you ought to do is you ought to be always praying, open my eyes that I may receive wonderful things from your law. When you're reading in your family, make sure that it's out of your heart. Moses said, these things shall be in your heart and you shall teach them to your children diligently. They've got to be in your heart.

You know, if you find yourself reading the word of God with coldness, you can turn. You can change that. You can turn to the Lord and not read it heartlessly any longer. And then in the corporate reading of the church, reading and hearing with affectionate, faith-filled, expectant, joyful awe. Now, in our church, we have desired that the Word of God maintains the central place in the life of our church.

That we believe that God leads his church by his word, the word that is preached, the word that is read, and we have a very high view of it. And we believe that the church is best equipped by making the preaching of the word of God an expository kind of format. And so there are several things that we've intentionally done in this church to try to focus you all on the Word of God. We believe that the Word of God is your minister. We're under shepherds, we're not all that helpful.

The Word of God, the Spirit of God, that's helpful. It's the most helpful thing you'll ever have, better than any human counselor. And so, what do we do about this? First of all, we engage in sequential expository preaching that attempts to deliver the actual words and phrases of scripture. That's the first way that we want to make the Word of God central.

Secondly, we attempt to make it plain each week To everyone in the church what we're going to be preaching on next. You know the text we just finished? We're going into the next section. We want you to know where we're going. Thirdly, we gather together on Tuesday mornings as men and we discuss the preaching text for the upcoming Sunday.

That's a critical time. Fourth, we send out a weekly email called This Week at Hope. We really do want you to read it. Why? Because we want you to be thinking about the Word of God.

It's just so easy to put it in the trash. Please don't do that. We write these things for your edification. We want to help focus your thinking about this passage of scripture. It's intentional.

It's not just a throwaway. Fifthly, we try to remember to pray about the teaching during our Wednesday night prayer. We just want to encourage you to pray about the text that's coming up and to see how the Lord might be working it in our hearts even on Wednesday before it's preached on Sunday. Sixth, we choose songs for Sunday worship that are in harmony with the text. Mike is very careful to do that and you can see it.

You know even when I was preaching today I was quoting words from the songs because I knew what the songs were. It just happened because those songs match the text and it helps to reinforce the preaching and the power of the word. And then eighth, we encourage conversation during the Sunday afternoon fellowship time that's centered around the preaching of the Word of God. So that's how we're trying to center our church on the reading and the searching of the Word of God. And our prayer is that we would find ourselves to be good confessional Baptists.

That we would be reading the Word of God and searching it out with fear. This kind of joyful, happy awe that God has designed for us. That we would have faith in it. That we would see how God could use it to change all of us together as a family. Why?

Because the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. And this is very consistent with the way that God has designed His church and the way that He's designed His family and that is that it is a family of rejoicing. God desires to rejoice your heart.

That's why John said, these things I've written to you that your joy may be full. And that can happen when we read the Word of God with fear. Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you for this confession that directs our hearts to things that are profitable for our souls, and I pray O Lord that you would give each of us grace to seek your word with pure and happy hearts, expectantly, longingly, in the fear that's consistent with this marvelous, pleasing, filial fear that you've placed within the hearts of your sons and daughters. Amen.