If you have your Bibles, turn to Isaiah chapter 11. I appreciate the chance to be back with you and also the invitation from Scott and the fact that he asks us about a year in advance so that I can pick the best text and I really do feel sorry for everyone else when they have to choose a different text. Isaiah chapter 11 we're going to be able to look just quickly this morning at one of the sweetest portraits of the fear of the Lord, because it's going to be the fear of the Lord as we see it in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. And we're going to take a walk with the prophet today so that we can see what he saw and think how he thought To live as he lived Isaiah chapter 11 we're going to actually begin in verse 33 of chapter 10 because there's a picture here that leads us into chapter 11. So Isaiah chapter 10 verse 33 through chapter 11 verse 10.

Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash. Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down, and those who are lofty will be abased. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel and strength. The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord. And he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear, but with righteousness, he will judge the poor and Decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath Of his lips he will slay the wicked also righteousness will be the belt about his loins and faithfulness the belt about his waist.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and the little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal or a banner for the peoples.

And his resting place will be glorious. Well, let's pray. Our glorious King, we seek your face this morning. God, we come because you have commanded us. There are plenty things in our hearts this morning.

There are thoughts and there's embarrassment as we seek you on a holy throne, but we come because we have no plan B. We come because you have opened our eyes and shown us that Jesus is the Christ and he has words of life for people like us. We come because we're so unspiritual at times. We're a needy people, God, and it is the I AM that we seek today. We are grateful for the work you've done in the past.

We're grateful for what we read that you will yet do, but it is the God that inhabits every moment and every place that we need turn your face toward us this morning God and meet us at the mercy seat again and for the honor of Jesus Christ Make good the boasts that we read of in Scripture and don't leave us where you find us today. Where there is real life in the soul calls it to flourish and spread the glorious influence of Christ into every area of our lives and where, God, where there is only words of religion, plant life. Father, we pray that you would unite our hearts to fear your name, open our eyes to behold wonderful things from your word and help us God to give you a wholehearted and corresponding response to what we read we ask it in Christ's name amen Well I want us to just begin with an illustration taken from these words. Imagine that the prophet is going to take us all for a walk in in an area quite a lot like this with all the hills and the trees. So we all get up and we think we're going to be here for an hour but we're not.

The prophet takes us, we all go out the doors and we all follow the prophet up over the ridge behind us. All the beautiful colors. But there's a shocking scene as soon as we top the ridge. When we top the ridge, we look down into a valley, and the entire forest on the other side of the ridge has been clear-cut. And all that remains are ugly stumps.

And then the prophet asks us to turn and to look in another direction and in the other direction there's just a field with one tree and that tree also has been cut down and all that remains is the one stump now in Isaiah's metaphor the great force that has been leveled represents the Assyrians and their armies which are at this point threatening Judah and God promises to step in and to deal with them. But then the one stump represents the Davidic line. It comes from Jesse. It's the family that all these hopes rest upon. You remember the covenant that God made with David, that there would be an enduring throne, a kingdom that would never end.

And when you look at this point in Israel's history, Ahaz is the king, he's a wicked king, and God warns them that he will deal with the line of David in their idolatry. He will cut them down. But from a distant perspective, it seems that all that God has promised is about to fail. Then the prophet has us look a little more closely at the stump and we see that from the stump there's a shoot or a twig a baby sapling begins to grow the roots are not dead and one day the sapling that grows from these roots from the family of Jesse will be the fulfillment of the covenant. And the throne will be erected that will never be toppled.

I want us to look more closely at the person that we're reading about here. We've been introduced to him before in Isaiah. Look back at chapter 7. In chapter 7 we find war on the edge of the people of God. To the north there's a number of enemies gathering.

Ahaz is the king of Judah. He's a godless king. He has already sacrificed many of his children on an altar to a foreign God. He has built, he will build soon a rival altar, a fancy replica of a pagan altar, and he'll put that in front of the temple, and he'll move the altar to the living God around the side. God mercifully sends Isaiah to Ahaz at this time and he says to him he is not to fear the armies that are gathering to the north because God himself will deal with these armies.

Now that's a hard thing to believe and so he says to Ahaz you can ask for a sign Make it as high as heaven or as low as shale. We would say in modern language God says to Ahaz ask for a sign. I'll move heaven and earth But Ahaz is an unbeliever Says to the Prophet. Oh, no, I don't need a sign I don't want to test God and It's not because he believes in the Lord, it's because he doesn't believe it's worth his time to ask a sign from the Lord. But God gives him a sign anyway verse 14 of chapter 7 therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel Now we see again in chapter 9 the same person spoken of.

Look at verse 6 and 7 of chapter 9. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God eternal father Prince of peace there will be no into the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this so that's what we're looking at We find the same person in chapter 11, this sapling, this shoot or branch off of Jesse's roots. Now before we go any further, let me give you some advice for what do we do with passages like this in the Old Testament that speak of Jesus Christ. We know enough about Christ if we're Christians to recognize that chapter 7 and 9 and 11, they're speaking about our Lord. And it's a very tempting thing for your heart to leap up and say, well I know that man.

I know that person. And before you realize it, you have filled the passage with all your thoughts of Jesus Christ. So it doesn't matter what the preacher says, it doesn't matter what Isaiah says, You kind of zone out and you go off on your own there and you think well, I know him. He's Jesus Well, who's the chapter talking about or what does it say about Christ? Well in a sense?

It doesn't matter and we fill it with our own thoughts. Not if you're not careful you jump ahead of a passage you fill it with your thoughts of Jesus Christ rather than the passage filling your mind with descriptions of Christ and you don't benefit from the passage It is so much more exciting to let the Father describe the Son to us Rather than us come to a passage like this and as soon as we recognize that it's a prophecy about Christ We turn and describe Christ back to the Bible In other words when we read the passage we could read it knowing it's Jesus Christ, we could read it and say to the Father, I want to read this as if it's the first time that my Lord is being described to me And I want to make room in my mind in my heart and then in my life For whatever you say about him Well, let's come and look at this as I mentioned there's a stump Jesse stump and off of that there's a branch or a shoot He is from the lineage of Jesse. He is another David He is the son of David as well But here it's a unique description many kings in the Bible when they're godly we find a description like this they walked in the in the waves of their father David but never do we find another David mentioned but I think that's the emphasis here someone from the family of Jesse someone who would fulfill the covenant God made with David.

Here is the beloved of God. And in verse 10 we read another description of them that really presents us with a mystery that can only be solved in Jesus of Nazareth. And that in verse 10, he is not only the branch growing off of this stump or a sapling or a shoot growing off of the stump of Jesse, he is also the root system of Jesse. Now how do we understand that? That the child that will be given to us the one who's good that upon his shoulders all the government of the universe will be placed this coming King who will fulfill every aspect and so much more of the covenant God made with David is the God of David he is the offspring of Jesse and he is the creator of Jesse and sustainer of Jesse in other words the Most High will become our kinsmen redeemer now what will he do Well quickly in verse 4 and following we find a wonderful description of the work of Christ spreading not only in an individual heart but across the face of the land.

When he comes he will judge, but he doesn't judge by what he sees. He judges with a perfect fairness and righteousness. Out of his mouth will go words that slay the wicked. His clothing is bound up with righteousness and faithfulness and Then we find these wonderful pictures the wolf and the lamb the the leopard and the young goat the calf and the lion the child and the Cobra There will be such a work through Jesus Christ that harmony will be brought to the universe that has been bent and twisted by our sin. It makes us think of Romans eight.

That all creation yearns for the completion of the work of Christ in his church when every believer is gathered and we all stand before him as Hebrew says all together Old Testament, New Testament saints together and we're all made complete with his image and the old creation like an old cloak that's gotten threadbare is rolled up and moved away and then there's a new creation made and when all this occurs we see the final fulfillment of what Isaiah 11 is saying Now these along with the boasts of chapter 9 that there will be an end of all war so much so that a warrior's boots and his his gear for war can be used as fuel for a fire, he'll never need them again when you read all these boasts and then you look at your phone this morning and you read the news apps, right now they're all political so they're particularly depressing and when you look at that and then you read Isaiah Now it's fine in a gathering like this, isn't it? Because you're among people that you love, you see friends you haven't seen in a while. And we get together and we open Bibles, we're reading from the same book, we look the same way, we dress and talk the same way.

So I don't think it takes much faith to read Isaiah 11 and to have a little thrill in your heart here. But when a child is breaking your heart and you can't sleep through the night, You don't remember the last time you slept through a night when there are church problems that keep you up When you go back home and Monday at work You're surrounded by people that would mock the things you hope in it is very difficult to believe the boasts here That's why God offered a has a sign How do we know that the Lord Jesus Christ, that this child King, will be sufficient to accomplish everything we read here? And the answer is given in verses 2 and 3. And it's united to the work of the Spirit in the Son of God in the Old Testament we see the Spirit working in those that God sets apart for a special task we think of prophets priests or kings and these Old Testament examples help us to understand something of how the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator as truly God but also truly man having laid aside that glory How does he accomplish such supernatural things?

But when we think about the work of the Spirit in the Son, we really are talking about a work that is in a solitary category. There's no one who has ever been anointed or equipped or enabled by the Holy Spirit in exactly the same way as Jesus of Nazareth has. We think of his name Messiah, it's just the Hebrew word for anointed one or Christ is the Greek word anointed one. As a mediator he must do what he does in his humanity and he must do it in a continual dependence upon the Holy Spirit we see this in other places in Isaiah Chapter 42 verse 1 Isaiah says this behold my servant the Lord is speaking whom I uphold My chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him and He will bring forth justice to the nations.

Again, in Isaiah 61, we find this quoted later in the New Testament when Christ says, the Spirit of the Lord, God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn." Well, in a small book, J. Douglas McMillan, a book called Jesus Power Without Measure, the little book is all about the work of the Spirit in the life of Christ and he mentions ways that the work of the spirit in anointing or enabling Christ is different than the work in the spirit enabling other people and he gives a few points let me give them to quickly first even in the most holy of Christians That the Holy Spirit equips to do the work of God the Spirit meets Resistance there is some sin. There's something that quenches There is there are things that grieve him but in the Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity there was nothing except what pleased the Spirit.

There was never resistance. Secondly, others have been given the Spirit and his equipping in a measure or in a limited degree but the Lord Jesus was given the Spirit without measure John tells us all the fullness of God dwelling in him bodily Paul tells us. Thirdly in Isaiah 11 it says that the Spirit will rest on him, and the word there is a permanent rest. Think of someone like Samson, equipped to do a great task. Of course, we know about the sin of Samson.

He tells Delilah all his heart. The Lord departs from him, and he's puny. But later, once more, God comes upon him and he's strong. But you never find this in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, do you? You never find sin, but nor do you find God coming upon Christ in a mighty way, then withdrawing himself and then coming back upon the Son of God there's a permanent rest there is a wonderful union but what does he do in the life of Jesus that makes him able to accomplish such a rescue And this is all leading up to the fear of the Lord, so hang with me.

The Bible here gives us six descriptions of what the Spirit does in the life of Christ to enable Him to save us. And before we look at them, let's determine in our mind this. When we read of things that Christ does to save us, when we read of what God has provided through his son for our rescue, we are not reading of anything extra. Regardless of how immense and limitless and rich and full it seems Nothing is extra in other words for any one of you To be rescued to be brought from darkness to light Requires that the Spirit does all six things that we're about to read of in the life of Jesus. In order for a homeschool child to be rescued requires all six.

None of us could ever look at this passage and say, I think that because I've been a pretty good person, I only need four of the six or three of the six or five of the six if Christ is not fully equipped in every way that Isaiah says he will be the none of us here have any hope in Christ But if he is given all six things that we read, then none of us needs to look anywhere else for our souls, hope, or the hope of our children. So Let's look at what the Spirit does. Three pairs of description. First, wisdom and understanding, then counsel and strength, then the knowledge of the Lord and the fear of the Lord. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding.

Think of it. This child who has come to be a king he will guide his people he will conduct affairs of state with a perfect wisdom and an infinite understanding He will be given a supernatural ability to see to the heart of the issue and Make every choice in light of what really is there. He will never be able to be confused or misguided Now think of a great country if you can that has a fool for a leader No matter how great the country's past no matter how rich it is and resources Academically, all right No matter how earnest and hard-working its people if a fool is the governor of that country, then great harm will come to the country. Now imagine a small country with very little to boast of, except one thing, its leader is wise. Then living in that small country is a happy thing Because of the consequences of the wisdom of its leader.

Christ is infinitely wise and he possesses all understanding. We see this in the New Testament. Look at him as a child in the temple just having a discourse with the Bible professors of his day and they're astonished at his understanding but it's not just that think about how he sees to the heart of the issue and he's never gotten off track by appearances John chapter 2 He cleanses the temple great crowds follow him They say to him we'll follow you and the Bible says he does not entrust himself to any of them He will not explain to them that he's the Messiah. Why not? It seems a perfect opportunity and the Bible says it's because he knows what is in the heart of men he sees to the heart of the issue and these curious followers that's not what he wants to cultivate later we find him having conversations one-on-one and You almost think that perhaps in the Greek it must read differently than in your English Bibles because it seems that Jesus Christ is a bit off topic So here's Nicodemus.

He says I know you're a wonderful teacher and immediately Jesus says Nicodemus You're gonna have to be birthed all over again from on high if you're going to understand anything about the kingdom. It seems like he's on a different path. The woman at the well, Jesus, I can tell that you're a prophet, so can you answer this perplexing spiritual question that my denomination has, which mountain should we worship on? And Christ goes to the heart of the issue with her, and it seems like he's talking off topic. But in all those cases we find that the one who has been given the spirit, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, is able to discern what is the heart of the issue and to deal with that.

Now Solomon, son of David, certainly was given a supernatural wisdom so that when people came and heard him make decisions, they're astonished, but he pales in comparison with the one that Paul says is the place where all the wisdom of God resides. There's no problem Any of us could bring this king that he would have to say to us, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to get back with you on that. The second pair of descriptions, council and power. Now, these are military words, So we're not talking about a counselor that you go to when you're confused. All right, we're talking about a military strategist and One that has the strength of the military power to accomplish all of his plans We see this picture of Christ as a warrior King in other places you remember Isaiah 63 Edom the enemy of Israel Basra their great fortress city and Isaiah in a in a sense in a vision is walking about and he sees someone a warrior coming out of the capital city of the great fortress city of their enemy.

And he wonders who it is. There's something strange about him. He's coming to him, he's covered in clothes that are splattered in blood. So he's coming from a great battle and Isaiah asks who is this that comes up from Basra and the answer is it is I? Mighty to save it's the Lord Jesus Christ in The book of Revelation we see the same picture later in the book of Colossians Paul gives it to us in a less poetic way but more theologically to the point listen to Colossians 2 15 when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him or through it through the cross through Christ if you're going to be rescued you need a redeemer that the Holy Spirit has given perfect military strategy and perfect military strength.

He can't be an armchair general. In chapter 9 we see him coming to set things right. Christ must not only know what the enemy is doing, how to counteract the work of the enemy but he must also himself take the field do you remember the parable in the New Testament our soul is like a treasure held by a strong man who's armored and armed and we're in his his stronghold but a stronger one comes and defeats him and enters into the stronghold and takes Whatever he wants takes us if You don't believe that your Savior needs to be a military strategist with military power, then you can always try this test. Try to save yourself. And you'll soon find that I need a captain of my salvation.

I don't merely need a counselor. I don't merely need one that I can go to with my broken heart I need one who will get up from the throne and take the field in the early 18th century a Welshman named Hal Harris who was a lay preacher in Wales and friend of George Whitfield. He wrote letters each month. They had what they called letter days where the revivalists who were spread. Whitfield traveled everywhere.

Most of them stayed closer to home. But wherever they were preaching and wherever they were seeing the extraordinary work of God in that great awakening or what the British called the evangelical revival on the continent, in the UK or in America, they would write letters home and once a month they would have letter days where they would get together and these early Methodists would read the reports of what was happening. In one of the letters, one of my favorite from Hal Harris, he's describing the way the gospel is spreading among the people in Wales, which the Puritans a century before called the dark corner of the land. And he says it this way to paraphrase him. He says, the captain has again taken the field.

Can you imagine talking that way about our nation? Can you ever imagine saying the captain has taken the field? When we go to church and we see the coldness of heart we need the captain to take the field. When you look in the mirror and you see that there's still so much of you in you and you wonder if God will ever complete the work of sanctification in you when you look at your children that you've raised And you've tried to point them to Christ and you've guided them and they seem indifferent You're going to need a captain who can take the field one with military counsel and might Now, let me add one thing As a pastor there are many times that I have been laid low by the enemy, and every word I say to people and every prayer I offer up and every effort I make is mocked. I'm so weak.

I stretch out my hand and it can't do anything. Amy Carmichael, one of my all-time favorite missionaries, such a militant lady in the best of ways. I really admire Amy Carmichael. She mentioned being in India and trying to rescue the children out of the temple prostitution system of the Hindu religion and many times she knew success but other times there was terrible failure and she just felt that all of her efforts were laid down and God was being mocked by the enemy and she mentions a paragraph from John Milton's poem Samson Agonistes probably some of your favorite reading no the agony of Samson and in the poem Milton paints a picture of Samson after he's fallen he's in the Philistine prison and the great festival to celebrate the power of the false god Dagon who delivered they said the Philistines would say who delivered Jehovah's champion into their hands. They're about to have this great festival and Samson is visited blind in prison by his father and he's pouring out his heart in remorse of what he's brought, the dishonor he's brought to God, but listen to what he says.

This has to do with this picture of Christ as our warrior Samson says in this poem this only hope relieves me that the strife with me hath end All the contest is betwixt God and Dagon. Dagon hath presumed me overthrown to interlist or to enter the battlefield with God. Be sure, he says, God thus provoked will arise and his great name assert Dagon must stoop. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever offered up prayer after prayer only to watch people turn away and you ask God why and the only answer you get is the mocking voice in your head of the enemy that says that no one's listening to you, no one ever listens to you up there, that all the success you felt that you saw in the ministry was just psychological manipulation and this one case that's in front of you right now is evidence of that.

So I love to say to the enemy when he talks to me that way Dagon hath presumed me overthrown that's true but now he's presumed he's gotten bold he enters the battlefield with God Dagon must stoop why because the Spirit gave our Lord all the military counsel and strength needed now we come to the third set of descriptions the knowledge and the fear of God both of these nouns knowledge and fear in the original are governed by the description of God. So it's the knowledge of God and the fear of God. Some people know a lot about God and have no fear of Him. They're not in the grip of the realities of God. It's just another thing they've heard about.

Maybe you're that way. And you would admire God from a distance but you hold Him at what you wrongly think is a safe distance. But not the Messiah. John 1. No one has seen God at any time but the only begotten Son of God who is in the bosom of the Father.

He has revealed or displayed Him, manifested Him. Matthew 11 Christ says all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father nor does anyone know the father except the son and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him now that's not too difficult for us Anybody having any trouble with that description? The Son of God knows the Father in a way that sets him apart. There's no problem with that. But now we come to the trick.

Alright, here's the sticky spot. Here's the spot that most commentators skip over and I don't know that how well I'll do but I'll do my best the next phrase he will also be given by the Holy Spirit a fear of the Lord It is easier to see this lived out in the life of Jesus of Nazareth than it is to define it but I'll give it my best try and I want to do that by using Bunyan's simple description of how the fear the Lord is cultivated and of what how he defines it. His definition goes something like this, there is an all full in the old sense of the word to be filled with all to be filled with amazement there's a soul here that is filled with all and reverence at the majesty of God. How, Bunyan says, how does that come about? Well he says there are three things.

Now this is one of the many lists that he gives like a good Puritan. This is the simple one. I want to keep it simple. So he gives three things that help us to come to this fear of the Lord. As believers, the eyes are open, the heart is warmed, the will is freed.

We are alive unto God. We've embraced Him. We've turned from and we've turned to. And what do we see? Three great realities Bunyan says.

First, we see the immensity of God or the majesty of God. We could say it simply, the bigness of God. We realize that there is a being of such infinite perfection that he is incomprehensible and Incomparable he is solitary in his splendor. There isn't anyone quite like him. We've never met anyone like him.

Now let me give you a very simple illustration for each of these. Imagine standing beside the Lord. This illustration was given to me by a man who's put together a small book on the fear the Lord who studied hundreds of passages for years I don't know anyone who talks more about this than this friend of mine and he said after studying it for a long time he said imagine standing by God before creation you and the triune God that's it all right not even space just nothingness and you're there and at the moment that God chooses suddenly the divine voice goes forth and it booms out across emptiness and he says let there be and suddenly all matter comes into existence at once what would you feel watching a being do that Something of the fear of the Lord, isn't it? To stand amazed at his infinite majesty. A second thing Bunyan said There is the unstained purity of God the holiness of God In this person there's not just infinite majesty, but there's purity.

Everything about him is straight, everything about him is beautiful, everything about him is essentially clean. He is altogether lovely, there's no mixture, there's no imbalance in his person. There's no conflict between his attributes. And in light of who he is, we see every sin as an insane, twisted, polluting choice. And when we look at the insanity of humanity and the wickedness of sin and then we turn again and see Him the beauty of this being is so clearly set apart imagine another scene, not the creation but judgment here on the throne is Jesus of Nazareth and he is Infinitely pure and infinitely beautiful.

He is everything that we ought to delight in everything. We ought to desire and He calls all spiritual beings all people all angels to his judgment throne and all creation is running the other way, and you and I are being called and forced to come before him. And imagine seeing all the sins of humanity, every wicked thought everything done behind closed doors in every culture in every place and every moment of human history it's all being displayed one after the next And the heinousness of it and the the treachery of it is there the ugliness of it and you look from that and you see Christ pure and Even though you're one of those sinners you love the purity of that King That's something of the fear of the Lord the last picture the goodness or the mercy of God One more scene to look at This creator this judge has now come in the person of his son. He's united to our flesh he is on the cross and mankind has done their worst his many his enemies have crucified him and mocked him his best friends have deserted him That's nothing in comparison with what the Father does.

He takes all the guilt and all the shame of every one of every of every sin of every person that he has chosen and he has placed it on the Messiah and he turns away from him because of the offense of that sin and he pulls back the gates and a river of infinite divine just rage sweeps across the Messiah and crushes him but don't stop looking As he's placed all that shame on Christ and Christ has suffered the wrath, the penalty, then he takes all the beauty of Jesus of Nazareth and he puts it on people like us. How would you think of him then? When you see your sin on Christ and he's crushed, the astonishment, then when you see him take the perfect obedience of Christ and place it upon you, that's something of the fear of the Lord. There is an all-filled reverence of His majesty, and it produces a life that never wants to take God as a light matter again and never wants to treat anyone else as the significant matter again. No one else's opinion, no one else's words, no one else's desires or pleasures will ever again hold the core of my being.

It will be this God that pulls me into his orbit I will be captivated I will live in the atmosphere atmosphere of His majesty of his purity of his kindness Now take that and go back to Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Spirit will give him perfectly the fear of the Lord. I think we see that most clearly in the humility of the Son and the love of the Son for the Father. He perfectly comprehends the majesty of his Father. He has always been with him.

He perfectly comprehends the purity of his Father. He has always been before him. He perfectly comprehends the kindness of the Father to sinners. And he dwells in a perpetual environment of that. So he sees the Father's will as the most beautiful and clean and wise choice.

He sees sin as the most twisted choice. It's always been this way for Jesus. As the eternal son of God, He always prefers the Father. Think about it, in the councils of eternity, before creation. The Father is the architect of the plan of salvation, if we can say this in a very human way, and he decides that the Son, he lays his hands upon the shoulder of the Son, the Son will become the champion of the sinner.

And the son embraces that for love of the father, as well as love of the bride. He always prefers the father above himself. At the end of all the work of redemption, 1 Corinthians 15, we find the father placing all things under the feet of the Sun and he is exalted above all creation and in Philippians 2 we see him being declared the Lord but then at the end of it all Paul says Christ gathers up all the outcome of redemption, all this kingdom and he turns and he presents it to the Father so that all might worship the Father as the source of redemption. He always prefers the Father above himself. He is captivated by the worth of his Father.

Now the passage goes on to say more than that. It goes back and mentions just one of those gifts, the fear of the Lord, and it carries on a little longer and it says this, he will delight in the fear of the Lord. Now the Hebrew word is very descriptive. It says he will like the smell of it. He will smell it.

And he likes it. And it's the Hebrew word for smelling that you like, all right? Not the other smells. To the God-man, the mundane little tasks of obedience, the day in and day out. Imagine all those days with Joseph, the stepfather.

All those days living with brothers and sisters all those days obeying Mary learning to read at the feet of Mary learning to do math learning to measure boards working with Joseph or as the Messiah accomplishing the work of redemption day after day walking from one dusty town to the next every little task even the ones that don't seem very significant to us the ones that aren't recorded in Scripture they are filled with joy for him because they are fragrant they are done out of the fear of the Lord out of a delight to prefer God above himself. Do you ever get into at a hotel you get into a an elevator you're headed down and somebody's in the elevator who just got out of the gym, right? It's not very pleasant. Sometimes you get in the elevator and there's a group of ladies, smells totally different. I like to jog and on these paths we have you jog a bunch of boys, jog one way, you know, and it's not very nice.

Then there's a group of ladies that jog this way. I don't know why but they all wear perfume. And so past they go and the whole trail smells nice for a while. I like pretty plants I'm not much of a gardener I plant them and let them die and blame the plant but one time I planted a sweet olive tree because I wanted when I went outside and settled on the porch I wanted that fragrance listen life is so tedious for a Christian. If you are not in love with the fear of the Lord, if it's not a sweet fragrance to you, then obedience is a grinding duty.

But for the Lord Jesus Christ, there was a joy, even in the cross, because he loved the smell of the fear of the Lord. What is it to you? Fear of the Lord? Kind of a stench? You're here because you're forced to be here Or is it kind of a scentless?

Pretty thing that people talk about like plastic flowers on a grave. They don't smell like anything Or Is it a real delight to you? Now as we come to the end of this text Let's consider some of the ways that Christ did show the fear of the Lord in Hebrews 5 We read that in the days of his flesh He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his piety says the New American Standard or his godly fear or reverence it's the same word We would expect the writer of Hebrews to say this, the father heard the son's cries, his weeping, his prayers, because he's the son. But no, because of his godly fear. It's not just his prayer time is it?

The entirety of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is full of the delight of the fear of the Lord. He lives in the grip of the immense worth of his Father And he delights to be self-forgetful as he devotes himself to the God to God now How does that look though? The gospel of John is the gospel that gives us more information about the interior life of the Messiah than any other so I want to just give you a sampling to show you how affected the life of Jesus of Nazareth think about what Christ lived upon what was the food of his life John 4 verse 34 Jesus says to his disciples my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work How can a man talk that way? How can he say this is what I live on my the substance of my life is to do the will of somebody else It's to always do the pleasure of another person. How can he say that except for the fact that the fear of the Lord is his delight?

Or this, what about his ambition? John 6 38, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me Jesus Why did you get out of bed this morning? Jesus? Why did you go to that town? Why did you stay up late with that group of people?

I have not come to do my own will the will of him who sent me He delights in the fear of the Lord to devote everything to Him. Think about the way He was motivated to go to the cross. John 14 He says to His disciples, if you love me you will keep my commandments. So that's a spiritual principle that applies to everyone. If we love God, love is not merely sentiment, it will produce obedience.

But then at the end of that chapter, he's in the upper room with the 11, and it's time to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, and this is what he says in verse 31 So that the world may know that I love the Father I do exactly as the Father commanded me get up Let us go from here Why is Christ going to the cross? Well, yes, he's giving his life for his bride, but there's something deeper than that I want the world to know that I delight in my father that I love him we could say that I fear him so the way to show that is I do what he tells me to do now come today's task is the cross How did he know what choices to make in the ministry? Again the fear of the Lord, John chapter 7, John chapter 5. I don't do anything on my own initiative. What I see the Father doing, that's where I join him.

How do I know what to say John chapter 7 verse 16 my teaching is not mine but his who sent me again in John 8 26 and 28 I speak the things I heard from my father John 12 49 I don't speak on my own initiative But the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment as to what to say and what to speak You see the picture here. There is a continual delight in preferring the Father above himself so much so that he doesn't even do anything on his own initiative it is the will of the father, the desire of the father, the pleasure of the father that is the guide and the goal of every decision That's how we know that the outcome that we read of in chapter 11 will really happen. Now let's have just a couple of applications. First, in this passage we find just the opening of the door, alright, for a life of delightful study of the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Have you only studied the aspects of Jesus where He promises to give you things?

I'll forgive you, I'll be with you. Have you ever backed up and looked at the things that are underneath that have you ever delighted in the attributes of God that we view in Christ have you ever considered this aspect of Christ I want to know how my Lord feared or revered his father. I want to see it in every one of its facets. I want to see what it's made of. I want to see how it worked itself out.

And there's a life of study here. Now by the way, this is the path forward for us for Christians there is a wrong way to come to a conference like this right this is how I'm very tempted to come the fear the Lord is such a significant theme in the scriptures you could hardly think of a more significant theme so I come to the conference and I say to myself this I need to fear the Lord more and look at all the promises that are connected to the fear of the Lord I want to fear the Lord I want my children to fear the Lord I want my marriage to be about the fear of the Lord. I want the church that I serve to fear the Lord I want all these wonderful things God will give us so I'm going to take the theme of the fear of the Lord and I'm going to use it in such a way as to get the most out of it but you will not fear the Lord that way will you you're still the center God is still small and you are still enormous and you are trying to use him and you're trying to use a theme How different to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and to look at him and to stick so close and to apprentice yourself to him and to cling to him throughout the day and to study his life until you see the fear of the Lord in its most beautiful aspects in the person of your Savior.

And like Paul says in 2 Corinthians, gazing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit is transforming you from glory unto glory, from one level of Christ-likeness to the next to the next, from one area to the next we're formative creatures tozer said we become what we look at we become what we admiringly gaze upon so what are you becoming like If you want to fear the Lord in that clean and happy way there are many passages we can study but do not neglect the study of the person of Christ. It is by looking at him with adoring believing hearts that you are being transformed into his image and that will include the fear of the Lord. So this is the way forward. Now This is our hope as well. Think of the atonement.

Scott Brown was just mentioning this morning when we were talking together. If you and I are going to be rescued from our crimes and our treacherous conduct, It is going to have to be done by one of us, a mediator, a kinsman, but one of us that perfectly fears the Lord because we have refused to fear the Lord. So if His atonement is going to be worth anything, then He must have lived every moment of His life in a perfect response to the Father that is described in Scripture as the fear of the Lord. And he will give that to us not just positionally the righteousness of Christ is placed on my account that's true so I am viewed by the Father as if I had feared him like that as if I had devoted myself to him as if I had seen him as the all-consuming object of life, as if my life had always orbited his pleasure. It hasn't, but positionally I'm treated as if it has because Christ did and Christ is my righteousness.

But think of it this way as well every Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ and we're not in a classroom with a notebook and a pen we are walking alongside him as an apprentice he is laying his hands over our hands He's showing us where to take the next step, how to understand things, how to respond. Folks, if you want to be taught how to fear the Lord, the best teacher is Jesus Christ. So Why not go back to our rooms this evening before we go to bed? Why not kneel down beside the bed and say to the Lord this, I have not feared you as you deserve. I have not been in the grip of you.

I have been in the grip of me and my bigness too often. But I don't want to stay that way so God I'm asking you you have taught hundreds of thousands of people just like me Christ you have taught them to fear the Lord in that happy way teach me Risk everything on the fact that the one that said I have food to eat that you don't know about to the disciples who one day did know what it was to live like their Savior that he'll say to us that he will teach us what food he lived on as well. Let's pray. God, we pray that you would create in us such a longing to be men and Women and children held captive by the superior worth of You, our God. Teach us, Father, through Your Son we pray.

Amen. For more messages, articles and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the word of God and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you