The title of my message tonight is Needless Fears. There was a time when, as a youth, I thought fear and faith could not exist together. I was wrong. I thought like that when I was a baby in grace, when my faith had not yet been tried. Then one day the Lord sent a little trail to me and began to whittle away at my pride and self-confidence. I began to fear for my very soul and thought that I was assuredly a lost man who had been deceived with a mere profession of faith. It was then that the Holy Spirit brought a text of Scripture to me that flooded my soul with hope and joy. It is found in one of David's psalms. Read it with me – Psalm 56:1-3.
You can imagine how relieved I was to read these words written by a man whom the Lord God called "a man after mine own heart," – "What time I am afraid I will trust in thee!" Fear is a horribly evil thing. It is totally in consistent with faith. Yet, fear and faith are often found in the same heart. Tonight, I want to show you that.
Proposition: The fears of God's elect are needless fears.They are real, I know; but they are needless. They are groundless. They are without foundation. And they are the product of unbelief. In this text of Scripture the Lord God chides us for our fear and unbelief.
1. "I even I, am he that comforteth you." That should be enough to drive away our fears. Our Comforter is the Triune God, The God of omnipotence, sovereignty, immutability, grace, and faithfulness. He comforts us by assuring us continually.
Repeatedly, our God calls for us to look to him, to trust him and quit living afraid of anyone or anything. He says, "Fear not," and assures us that we have nothing to fear.
2. "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man?" What a rebuke this question is! The Lord God says to you and me – "Remember who you are!"
"Remember also who your enemy is" – Man that shall die… the son of man which shall be made as grass!" Why should the children of the eternal God fear the wrath of perishing men?
3. Now look at this third thing that God says to us – "And forgetteth the Lord thy Maker!" Fear is the forgetfulness of God! Whenever you and I are engaged in fear we forget…
"We forget our Jehovah-jirehs, monuments of mercy in the mount of the Lord." (M. Henry).
4. Then the Lord challenges us with this question. "Where is the fury of the oppressor?" The text seems to imply that our fear of the oppressor, whoever he may be, is utterly groundless. Though he may be furious, though he would destroy, his fury shall never be satisfied upon God's elect, for he has absolutely no ability to destroy us! What the Lord God here says of one oppressor is true of all oppressors. What he says of one fear is true of all fears, so far as his people are concerned.
I. There are Some Needless Fears with which True Believers Often Afflict Themselves.
Many of God's people are constantly fearful of calamities that never come to pass. They see floods where there are only streams. They stab themselves with imaginary daggers, starve themselves in famines that are sure to come, and bury their families in graves they have dug by their fears. We are all guilty! We are such strange, fretful creatures that we suffer much more from imaginary woes than we do from real trouble.
We ought not plague ourselves with fear (Matt. 6:25-34).Here are five areas of fear that frequently disturb men and women who truly believe God.
A. Many young converts have been Resistant in Confessing Christ Because of The Fear of Man – (Matt. 10:28-32).
Illus: The Man and His Wife who came to Spurgeon for Baptism – Both fearing to tell the other what they had experienced of God's grace.
1. If you confess Christ before men you will meet with persecution – (Baptism – Witnessing – Defence of truth – Etc.).
B. A good number of God's saints Fear for the Church of God and the Truth of God – "The ark of God, is it safe?"
I frequently meet with or receive letters from men and women who seem to panic when they are confronted with the abounding heresies with which Babylon has intoxicated the whole world. Hear me now – There is no cause for alarm. I am not unaware of what is going on around us. I know the devil blows very hard, but he can never blow out the candle God lights!
Illus: "Aren't you afraid of evil influences your daughter faces at school?"
1. Evaluation abounds everywhere, but God's elect are not deceived.
2. Romanism, Adventism, Campbellism, and Mormonism have become accepted under the umbrella of peace and brotherly love, but God's saints are unaffected.
3. Freewillism, Arminianism, and Pentecostalism are universally embraced in the religious world, while the doctrine of our forefathers is thrown on the scrap heap of theological rubbish, but God's people still walk in the truth – In so far as our religious associations are concerned, it is "T.U.L.I.P." or termination.
4. Abounding heresies do not affect men and women who walk in truth.
a. We do not determine what we will believe by the opinions of men, but by the word of God (Isa. 8:20). We seek the old paths – (Jer. 6:16).
b. We know that heresies must come (I Cor. 11:19; II Thess. 2:1-14).
c. "The Word of God is not bound!" (II Tim. 2:9).C. Some True Believers Fear That They Shall, After All, Fall Away And Perish Without Christ.
Faith and the assurance of faith are not the same thing. Many a saint feels with respect to his soul as David did with regard to his life, when he said, "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul!"
Illus: Harry Graham – "For the first time in my life, I have no assurance."
Illus: When our Lord told his disciples one of them would betray him, they all said, "Lord, is it I," except Judas! He did finally ask, "Is it I," but only to keep up appearances. He did not really believe he could do it.
I cannot give you assurance. Only God can do that! But I do ask you to consider two questions.
1. What is the basis of your hope before God? - Christ Alone! (I Cor. 1:30).
2. Is salvation your work or God's? (Isa. 51:6; Eccles. 3:14).
"If our religion be of our own getting or making, it will perish; and the sooner it goes, the better; but if our religion is a matter of God's giving, we know that he shall never take back what he gives, and that, if he has commenced to work in us by his grace, he will never leave it unfinished" – (C.H. Spurgeon).
II Timothy 2:12; I Thess. 5:25 D. Some true believers constantly harass themselves with carnal fears regarding life in this world. 1. Many fear poverty.I have known some to express the fear they might not even have enough to bury them when they die, as if the living might not attend to that matter!
2. Many fear sickness and disease. 3. Many constantly fear for the safety of their families.
a. There are no pains in death for God's elect. The pain is not in dying but in living. Death will end our pain!
b. God's elect shall never die (John 11:25).
a. We shall enter into rest.
b. We shall have all our fervent prayers answered. II Corinthians 5:19.
II. I want you to see that All These Fears Really Are Needless Fears!
Here are some questions by which I hope we can chase fear away. Whenever it steals a place in our minds (Rom 8:38).
A. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (v. 31).
B. "He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (v. 32).
C. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect; It is God that justifieth!" (v. 33).
D. "Who is he that condemneth?" (v. 34).
E. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (vv. 35-39).
1. They dishonor Him.
2. They hinder our brethren.
3. They put the gospel in a very poor light.
4. They are without foundation. You and I who believe God have every reason for confidence regarding…
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