A Delightful Fear of God
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A true encounter with God's grace in the gospel cannot leave His people unaffected. His awesome goodness and love should cause our hearts to quake. Today, Michael Reeves shows why the fear of the Lord is a delight for Christians.
Get Michael Reeves' video teaching series The Fear of the Lord on DVD with your donation. You'll also unlock digital access to all 8 messages and the study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/
Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Request Dr. Reeves' digital teaching series and study guide with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global
Meet Today's Teacher:
Michael Reeves is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow, president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in Wales, and host of the podcast Delighting in the Trinity.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Before we begin today's episode of renewing your mind, we invite you to stay with us through the end of the program to hear how you can request today's featured resource from Ligdair Ministries. |
| 0:10.0 | This right fear of God, it is not the gloomy flipside to joy in God. It is a way of speaking about the sheer intensity of the saint's happiness in God. |
| 0:26.6 | Our joy in God at its purest is a trembling and wonder-filled, yes, fearful joy. For the object of our joy is so fearfully wonderful. |
| 0:44.3 | What do you think about when you read in the Bible that God is to be feared? |
| 0:53.3 | Does it immediately bring |
| 0:55.1 | to mind a fearful joy? Many Christians would say no, perhaps even suggesting that |
| 1:01.1 | fearing God was something exclusive to the Old Testament. Well, I'm glad you're with us today |
| 1:06.4 | for renewing your mind as Dr. Michael Reeves deeper into the Bible's description of a godly |
| 1:12.6 | fear of the Lord. |
| 1:17.4 | C.I. Schofield once called the fear of God a phrase of Old Testament piety. And so it was. However, the fear of God is not a phrase of Old Testament |
| 1:33.5 | piety only, for the fear of God is quite explicitly a blessing of the new covenant. So speaking of the new covenant, the Lord promised through Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 32 from |
| 1:53.0 | verse 38 to 40, the Lord says, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way |
| 2:05.6 | that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. |
| 2:14.3 | I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. |
| 2:21.2 | And I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn away from me. |
| 2:29.0 | So what is this fear that the Lord will put in the hearts of his people? |
| 2:38.9 | Well, unlike that devilish fear that would drive us away from God in dread, this is a fear that keeps us from turning away from God. |
| 2:49.1 | And if we want real clarity on what this new covenant blessing means, |
| 2:54.3 | the Lord goes on in the next chapter, Jeremiah 33, to explain this fear. In words so striking, |
| 3:04.1 | they overturn all our expectations of what the fear of God is. |
| 3:09.4 | Jeremiah 33 verses 8 and 9. |
| 3:13.3 | The Lord promises, I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 16 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ligonier Ministries, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ligonier Ministries and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.