Fearing God as Father

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Reformed, Study, Jesus, Preaching, Christianity, Scripture, Spirit, Bible, Holy, Theology, Christian, God, Teaching

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jesus’ work of redemption reveals the boundless love of God for His adopted children. Today, Michael Reeves explains how the gospel guides us to look to our heavenly Father with dependent wonder and adoration.

Request Michael Reeves’ teaching series The Fear of the Lord on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, with your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3910/donate

Meet Today’s Teacher:

Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom. He is the featured teacher for the Ligonier teaching series The English Reformation and the Puritans. He is author of many books, including The Unquenchable Flame, Delighting in the Trinity, and Rejoice and Tremble.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	The filial fear that the Son shares with us is quite different to the sinners dread of God and dread of punishment.
0:12.0	The right fear is an adoration of God that dreads sin itself, not just its punishment.
0:25.6	It is an immense privilege for us as Christians to be able to address God as Father, our Father in Heaven.
0:34.6	And understanding this aspect of our relationship with God helps shine additional
0:39.3	light on what it means for the true believer to fear God. And that will be our focus today
0:44.9	on this Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. This week, you're hearing messages from Michael
0:51.2	Reeves' series, The Fear of the Lord. Dr. Reeves introduced us to the concept
0:56.4	of the fear of the Lord yesterday, helping us see that when we rightly fear God, all other lesser
1:02.5	fears melt away. Here's Dr. Reeves on fearing God as Father.
1:21.0	John Calvin divided up our knowledge of God into two steps or levels.
1:31.4	So there is the knowledge of God, the Creator, that was book one of the institutes, and then the knowledge of God,
1:39.5	the Redeemer in Christ, which is book two of the institutes. And to be clear, Calvin didn't think it was acceptable or possible for Christians to stop with the knowledge of God, the Creator.
1:48.7	In fact, he said those who only think of God as Creator are lost and accursed.
1:57.8	Now, he wanted Christians to think of the Almighty Creator as their Father, as He's redeemed
2:08.6	us in Christ.
2:09.9	He wanted to draw his readers on to know of the Son, he said, returning us to God, our author and maker, from whom we've been
2:22.2	estranged, in order that he may again begin to be our father. For without that knowledge of the son as our Redeemer and the Father as our Father in Christ,
2:41.0	without that knowledge we don't really know God.
2:45.0	So it is the fear of God as our Father that we're going to press into now.
2:51.6	The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
2:56.6	And that deeper knowledge of God, the knowledge of God found through Christ in His redemption,
3:05.6	that will lead to a deeper, richer, sweeter fear than mere knowledge
	...

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