But today we want to talk about
a different subject here. We want to talk about fear. That's
the subject of today's message, fear. The fear that overcometh
fear, and as you can see, the two scriptures we'll be looking
at if you want to go ahead and find those places, Genesis 3
and in Jeremiah 32. You know, in this world, we live
with all kinds of fears. I pulled it up on the internet. There must be 150 or more phobias
listed of things in this world, claustrophobia, fear of close
places. Acrophobia, arachnophobia, fear
of spiders, and one that my oldest son used to have was dentophobia,
fear of the dentist. He didn't like to go to the dentist
at all. And then there's even a fear of phobias, phobophobia,
believe it or not. Now sometimes these fears are
overcome with knowledge. I mean, young children a lot
of times are afraid of the dark. Well, they grow out of that.
You know, they get over it. Jeremy got over his fear of going
to the dentist. But sometimes we just have to
live with these fears. I'm pretty sure I'm going to
die with the fear of snakes. I just don't like them. I don't
like to be around them. You can tell me they're okay.
You can tell me they're not. I just don't want to be around
them. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die that way. I don't think
I'm going to get over that. So there are a lot of fears we
deal with in life, but in the spiritual realm, the scriptures
speak of two kinds of fear. Two kinds. There's the natural,
legal fear. This is fear of punishment. Fear
that we hadn't done quite enough to avoid God's wrath. And then
there's the reverential fear that Randy read about in that
Psalm 34 there. This is fear that gives reverence
to God's redemptive glory. It shows how he's just to justify
an ungodly sinner like you or me based on the finished work
of Christ, the very righteousness he wrought out, imputed to us,
and on no other ground. That fear alone, the reverential
fear, is the fear that overcomes that other fear. First, let's
talk about that first fear, that legal fear, that natural fear,
that fear of punishment. It's the fear that we have done
something wrong or haven't done everything right and that we
deserve some kind of punishment. We expect to be punished or we
think that we could be punished. Now, that kind of fear plays
out in our practical lives like this. This fear comes up in your
mind when you look up at that red light you just, that light
you just went under and it's red when you get there. I mean,
you look around to see if anybody's looking. Is that policeman watching
me? Am I gonna be ticketed here?
You know, that kind of fear. And that fear never completely
goes away because even though we're pretty sure we hadn't done
anything wrong, when those blue lights light up in our rear view
mirror and we see them back there, we say, did I go over the line?
Did I fail to use my turn signal? That fear, it's there. Well,
that's a kind of that fear we have by nature in the spiritual
realm. In our practical lives, we experience this kind of fear
Like I said, a lot of different ways. But this fear, this kind
of fear, the fear of punishment, the fear that we've done something
wrong or that we haven't done quite enough right, it had a
beginning. And we can see it's beginning all the way back in
the garden, all the way back to Genesis where Adam rebelled
against God. So that's why we're going back
here to Genesis 3 to look at where this fear got started. Genesis 3 and verse 6 says, now
this is after God had commanded Adam not to eat of the tree in
the center of the garden. Eat of any others, don't eat
of that one. And of course Satan beguiled
Eve and she ate of that tree and gave to Adam and he ate of
it. And that's what we're going to
read about right here in verse 6. When the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof and did eat and gave unto her husband with her and
he did eat. And the eyes of them both were open and they knew
that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and
made themselves aprons. Now, back up further, they were
naked before and no shame, but now they knew something. Adam
and Eve knew something they had not known before after Adam rebelled
against God. They knew they were naked. They
knew they were exposed to something that they hadn't previously been
exposed to. They were now afraid that God
would inflict the punishment on them that he told them about.
In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And that's
where legal fear was born, right there on that day. They feared
God. They feared His just punishment. They feared the death that He
threatened. Now, they didn't know anything
about death, but they had that fear. But their efforts to shield
themselves from God's wrath weren't enough. They sewed fig leaves
together, but that wasn't enough to shield, to settle their thinking
on whether God would punish them or not. The fig leaves Adam and
Eve sowed together didn't overcome that fear. It didn't deliver
them from that legal fear. Look on in Genesis 3 and verse
8. It says, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees
of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? Now, he wasn't looking
for information. He knew where Adam was, but what
he was really saying, Adam, where are you now? What have you done
here? And verse 10 says, and Adam said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked, and I hid myself. Adam and Eve sowed fig leaves
together, but didn't overcome their fear. It didn't overcome
their exposure to God's wrath. It wasn't enough. They still
found it necessary to hide when God came calling. You can see
this fear is the motivator there. He said, I hid myself because
I was afraid. And I was afraid because I wasn't
certain that that covering I made was good enough. to shield me
from the punishment I now know I deserved. Adam sought his own
solution there, in other words. He had a problem, a new problem,
and he sought his own solution. Now how does that play out on
the fallen sons and daughters of Adam? This fear, this fear
that began there in the garden, this fear of a sinner seeking
his own solution for their sin problem. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves
together and hid from God, but God didn't leave them there.
He came and showed them a different solution, His solution, God's
solution to the sin problem. He slew an animal and He clothed
Adam and Eve in His skin. You can read about that in Genesis
3.21 on down there. showed them a picture of Christ. They knew him as the woman seed
who would come in time and crush the head of the serpent, although
the serpent would bruise his heel. And in Revelation, I'll
read you Revelation 19 in verse 8. He's talking about the church
here, and it says, and unto her was granted, unto the church
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
So that's, see, that's what God was picturing to Adam and Eve
there, that he made them coats of skins, and that's a picture,
it's a type of the righteous robe Christ would come and work
out by his obedience unto death. But the legal fear born in Adam's
rebellion is what's passed on to every son and daughter of
Adam. Just like Adam, we think, by nature, we think we can solve
our sin problem. Just like Adam, we think the
solution has got something to do with our doing, our obedience,
our reformation, something. And it's this fear that motivates
every action of an unregenerate sinner, although by nature in
our unregenerate state. We don't realize that we're being
motivated by fear. We think we're honoring God.
We think we're doing things that he's pleased with. But in reality,
we're in bondage here that we can't see. And we'll talk more
about that as we move on down here. Before God delivers us
from this fear, this natural fear, this fear is what moves
us. It's what motivates everything
we do. We desire to avoid punishment.
We desire to be right with God. We desire to be in His favor.
So, what do we do? We do. We worship. We reform
our lives. We pray. We give. We accept Jesus
as our personal Savior. We do whatever we think it takes
for us to not be under God's wrath and be in His favor. We
do what we can. We do what we're told. We do
what we're taught. We do whatever we think we need
to to avoid God's wrath and to be put in his favor. And every
act of doing is an attempt to avoid the punishment We have
some notion we deserve punishment, or we wouldn't be doing anything
at all. We wouldn't even be religious if we didn't have some notion
that we got to do something here. We got to get right with God.
We got to straighten up. And that's what the religion
of this world tells us. And it tells us exactly what
we want to hear. Every act of doing is an attempt
to avoid the punishment God's justice demands of every soul
that sins. And every act of doing is an
attempt to be right with God. All such acts of doing are a
product of that natural fear, that legal fear. Now the scriptures
declare that it is this fear, this natural legal fear that
causes sinners to seek and to see righteousness in ourselves. Just like the Pharisees in Christ's
day. Listen to Luke chapter 18. Christ is speaking here and he
spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. Now the parable he spoke
there is the parable of the, what is that parable of? Pharisee, the Republican and
the Pharisee. And of course, the Pharisee is the man zealous. And the publican, the poor fellow,
he smote on his breast, wouldn't even look up, and said, Lord,
be merciful to me, the sinner. But that Pharisee there, is you and
me by nature. Now, we might not have been quite
as religious, quite as zealous as that Pharisee, but we still
trusted in ourselves that we were righteous somehow. You see,
anybody not looking to the imputed righteousness of Christ, and
we'll talk about this a little more later on, but anybody not
looking to his righteousness, to make you righteous, to deliver
you from the legal guilt, the legal punishment of sin you deserve.
Anybody not looking to Christ's righteousness imputed, they're
looking within. We're looking within. We're looking
to something we're doing. We may even say it's something
like the Pharisee. He gave credit to God. I thank
you, Lord, that I'm not like other men. But still, we're looking
within. Within here. Looking at our doing. Every facet of this world's religion,
it's the religion of works, the religion of Cain, is a promotion
of just such self-righteousness, righteousness within the sinner,
righteousness in the doing of sinners. And self-righteous religion
promotes what comes natural to us. That's what we want. We wouldn't
go there if they didn't promote that. We'd go somewhere else.
Self-righteous religion promotes this natural legal fear that
causes us all without exception by nature to go about to establish
a righteousness of our own. Now these are familiar verses.
You don't have to turn there or you can. In Romans 10 verses
1 through 3, Paul is praying here for his brethren in the
flesh. He says, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. I bear them record, they have
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Now, being ignorant of God's
righteousness here is just another way of saying that sinners are
ignorant of God's solution to the sin problem. We know there's
a problem, but see, we're looking to our solution. We're ignorant
of God's solution. And that's the knowledge that
all by nature are ignorant of. Fallen sinners know some things. We know we're sinners and we
know our sin deserves punishment. But we're ignorant of God's righteousness. That's the specific thing we're
ignorant of. Therefore, we think that if we're
to be free from God's just punishment, if we're to be put in God's favor,
we have to do something. That's why all by nature are
guilty of going about. That's what that verse says.
If you're ignorant of God's righteousness, then you're automatically going
about. Now, like I said, you don't see yourself going about
to establish righteousness. We see that later after God opens
our eyes. after He brings us to the truth
and He brings us to submit to Christ's righteousness. But we're
going about to establish a righteousness of our own in opposition to God's
righteousness. Now, going about to establish
a righteousness of our own is what the Scriptures call, in
another place, committing sin. In John 8, in verse 34, I'm going
to read one verse here, but I'll give you the background on John
8, 34. Christ is talking to some sinners who believe that he was
the Messiah. And he said, if you continue
in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you'll know the truth,
and the truth will make you free. And they said, Lord, wait a minute
now. We're Abraham's seed. We don't need to be made free.
What are you talking about, be made free? I'm not in bondage.
They didn't know they were in a bondage. And Jesus said to
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whoever commits sin is the
servant of sin. He's in bondage to sin. It doesn't
matter that he doesn't know that he's in bondage. He's in bondage
nonetheless. Committing sin is walking in
that natural legal fear, that motivation that we all have by
nature. Committing sin is trying to avoid
the punishment that we know our sin deserves. It's seeking the
favor of God, which we desire to have, but it's seeking it
by our efforts, by our doing. Committing sin is not finding
all of salvation in the righteousness of Christ and there alone. A
sinner commits sin who imagines that anything in them, even our
faith, even our worship, even our zeal in religion, anything
makes up any part of the cause of God saving us or blessing
us. That's committing sin. If you
fail to see Christ's righteousness alone, enabling God to be just
and justify a sinner like you, then whatever you're looking
to is committing sin. Natural legal fear causes all
of us by nature to go about, and going about is committing
sin. And committing sin is bondage. That's what the scripture calls
it. It's this fear that holds all of us in bondage, although
we're ignorant that we're in bondage. See, it's like we're
in jail, but we don't know we're in jail. We're in prison, but
we don't know we're in prison. By nature, we're all ignorant
that our actions are motivated by this legal fear. Now, I'm
talking about us by nature now, because we're going to talk about
being delivered from this in a minute. By nature, we're ignorant
that our actions are holding us in bondage to the sin that
deceives us all. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul wrote
to them about the deceivableness of unrighteousness. Well, unrighteousness
is not generally deceivable. I mean, we know lying and cheating
and all kinds of, we know all that sin, but what we don't see
as sin is our efforts to please God, our efforts to find acceptance
with God by nature. See, the natural man can't see
that as sin. That's something that God has
to show us to be seen. And as long as we're there, we're
in bondage to that sin. This legal fear. is the fear
then that we all need to be and we must be delivered from. See,
we can't deliver ourselves from this fear. No matter if Adam
and Eve had sewed fig leaves together and hid from God and
did ten prayers a day and memorized, they didn't have any scripture
to memorize, but done whatever. they couldn't have delivered
themselves from this legal fear. That comes through the preaching
of the gospel. That comes from an understanding of Christ, who
he is and what he's done to save those sinners he was given. Deliverance from this legal fear
is one of the main reasons Christ came to this earth, and we can
read about that in Hebrews 2 verses 14 and 15. It says, for as much
then, he's talking about Christ here, for as much then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Now, It says that through death
Christ destroyed him that had the power of death. Satan never
had the power to end our life. I mean, he doesn't have the power
to put a person to death. God hadn't given him that power.
God holds that, like Brother Jim said in the message this
morning, that's in God's hands. The instrument of our death is
already prepared and it's in God's hands. And it's going to
come about just like he's determined it to come about. But Satan does
have the power to hold us in our conscience, condemned in
our conscience. See, if you're one of God's elect,
you were chosen in Christ before the world began unto salvation. And you were justified based
on Christ's righteousness imputed to you way back there in eternity. And you were redeemed by Christ
on the cross. But that didn't keep you or me
from being born legally bound, legally trying to work out our
own salvation. We have to be delivered from
that. It doesn't matter that we're one of God's elect. It
doesn't matter that we're justified based on a righteousness we had
no part in producing. We still have to be saved in
the spiritual realm. Saved from just what I'm talking
about, this bondage that we're held in until Christ delivers
us. And verse 15 tells us that's
one of the reasons he came. To deliver them who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We're in
bondage. Till we see what Christ has done to deliver sinners like
us from the legal guilt of sin, to satisfy justice in our place,
to bear our punishment, and to bring forth that righteousness
by which God is just to justify us, we're held in this fear. But He's elect. He's chosen. those that God loved
before the foundation of the world and put in him. They're
not going to be left under this fear. They're going to be delivered.
Sinners need to be delivered. And one of the reasons Christ
came is to deliver his sheep from this fear. He won't fail
to deliver his sheep. But until he does, we are subject
to the bondage of this fear. Now, this is the first kind of
fear. It's natural fear. It's legal
fear. It's fear of death, fear of punishment. It's the fear that causes all
of us to go about trying to work out a righteousness of our own.
It holds us in that bondage, and it's the only fear we have
before we come to the knowledge of Christ. It's the fear that
all need to be delivered from, and it's the fear that Christ
came to and will deliver every sinner he was given from. But
the scriptures speak of a second kind of fear. This fear is reverential
fear. It's fear that regards God's
redemptive character, fear that gives reverence to the God who
justifies the ungodly based on nothing but Christ's righteousness
and love. God overcomes that first fear, that legal fear,
with this fear. See, we're born ungodly by nature,
and God has to deliver us from that ungodliness. We're born
without any reverence for God. I'll show the scripture that
talks about that in just a minute. Let's begin our understanding
of this second kind of fear by seeing that it's absent in all
of us by nature. This reverential fear, we don't
have it. We don't have it until God gives it to us in regeneration. If we look at some familiar verses
here in Romans 3, I'll start in verse 9. It says, Romans 9,
3, What then? Paul writes, are we better than
they? He's asking, are the Jews better
than the Gentiles? No, in no wise, for we have proved
before both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin,
all in bondage to sin. Now, the first thing we want
to understand here is Paul writing here to all without exception.
Jew and Gentile, that's everybody. That's the way the Jews looked
at it. The Jews and everybody else. So he's talking about everybody
here. And let me just summarize. I'm not going to read all these
verses in Romans 3, 10 through 18, but this is God's indictment
against fallen humanity here. And he starts out, there's none
righteous. No, not one. There's none seeking after God.
It doesn't mean we're not seeking after a God, but we're not seeking
after the God of the Scriptures. We're not seeking after a just
God and Savior. We're not seeking after a God
who justifies the ungodly based on Christ's righteousness imputed
alone. We're not seeking after God.
There's none that doeth good. And here's the bottom line, verse
18, Romans 3, 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now it's talking about all of
us without exception. And that says there's no reverence
for the God who justifies the ungodly. There's no reverence
for the honor of God's character in the salvation of ungodly sinners
like we are by nature. I've already shown you that we
all do fear God. We all fear His wrath. We fear
His punishment. We all fear not being found in
His favor. But none of us, by nature, has
this fear that's mentioned right here. None of us has any degree
of the fear that reverences God's redemptive character. None of
us has any regard for what God has done to deliver sinners from
His wrath, from His punishment. None knows God or regards Him
as the just God and Savior that He declares Himself in His Word
to be. He distinguishes Himself from
idols this way. He's a just God and a Savior.
All by nature are ignorant of God's righteousness and none
of us by nature knows that Christ's righteousness imputed is the
only thing that makes it right, that makes it just for God to
show mercy to sinners like us who deserve nothing but his eternal
wrath and judgment. Now we've already seen the proof
that this fear is absent in all of us by nature. What's the proof?
We're all going about to establish a righteousness of our own. in
opposition to the righteousness of God. It's always revealed
in God's gospel. We're committing sin. We're in
bondage. We don't know it, but we are.
And we go on that way until God delivers us. Until God, we see
His command to do otherwise. God commands sinners to fear
Him. See, that's the command of God.
You say, well, that first fear, that's not what He's talking
about. He's talking about that second fear. God's command is
not to be afraid of him, but rather to revere him, give reverence
to him, give reverence to his character in the salvation of
sinners such as we are by nature. Regard his redemptive glory.
It's to know him and to honor him as he reveals himself in
Isaiah 45, 21, a just God and a Savior. God's command is to give glory
to him as the God who saves sinners, like us, based on nothing but
Christ's righteousness imputed alone. The command of the scripture
is fear God with reverence and respect. Fear God because that's
where true knowledge begins. You know, we all think we're
born into this world with a little knowledge of God, but the God
we have knowledge of is the God of our imagination. It's the
God of somebody's imagination. It's not the true and living
God. Listen to Proverbs 1, 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. It's not addition to knowledge
we already have. It's where we begin. When we
see God just to justify sinners on the basis of Christ's work
alone, on the basis of His righteousness and beauty alone, that's when
we begin to know God. That's not when we begin to add
on to what we already learned about God. No, we have to forget
all that. We have to repent of all that
and come to the God who justifies the ungodly based on Christ's
work alone. Fear God because it's where wisdom
begins and how it increases. Psalm 111.10 says, The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. Fear God because it adds understanding
to wisdom. Proverbs 9 and verse 10. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. See, that's stated
a whole lot of times. It must be pretty important.
And the knowledge of the holy, the holy God, the just God, is
understanding. Proverbs 4, 7, and 8. Wisdom
is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And with
all thy getting of wisdom, get understanding. Exalt her, and
she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor
when thou dost embrace her. All that we understand from this
book begins with the knowledge of how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. See, when God brings us to the
gospel and he causes us, enables us, literally, to submit to Christ's
righteousness as the only ground of salvation, that's when we
begin to know God. That's when we begin to learn
what this word says about God and about Christ and about how
he saves sinners. Fear God because it's the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes
12, 13, and 14 says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. This is Solomon wrapping up Ecclesiastes
here. This is the conclusion right
here. Fear God. and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work
into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or
whether it be evil. The final judgment of every work
that we perform in this world will be in reference to whether
it was done in reverential fear or whether it was done in legal
fear. What's motivating the work? That's the question we have to
answer. Is it a regard for a just God and Savior? Is it resting
in Christ alone? Or is it the fear of a God who
will punish you if you don't do and continue doing and do
more? It's one or the other. There's
only these two kinds of fear. God commands a regard for his
redemptive glory. Now how do sinners get to this
second? How do we come to have this second
kind of fear? It's a gift. God gives it to
us. It's a gift given to us in regeneration. This fear is given by the Spirit
of God when he brings us to see God just and justifier based
on Christ's righteousness. None has this fear to any degree
before that. This is fear we begin to have
only after we come to the knowledge of Christ. This is fear we begin
to have only after the Spirit shows us the things of Christ. causes us to value what Christ
has done to save his people from their sins. It's fear we begin
to have only after the Spirit comes to us in the power under
the gospel, in his power, in his regenerating power under
the gospel. Only after we are delivered from
that form of doctrine to that form of doctrine, excuse me,
that reveals a just God and Savior. Listen to Romans 6, 17, and 18. Now, Brother Bill just preached
on these a few weeks ago in our Sunday school hour, but listen
to these verses. Talking to believers, you know,
he said, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin,
but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, which
was delivered to you. And that's literally, literally
reads to which you were delivered. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. Notice that none of us start
out servants of righteousness. We all start out servants of
sin. We have to be delivered from being a servant of sin.
A servant to a sin we can't even see by nature. We don't even
recognize by nature, and yet we're in bondage to that sin. One more scripture on how sinners
get this reverential fear. God delivers us to his gospel
and he puts this fear in us. Look at our second text here
in Jeremiah 32 verse 37. Behold, he's talking about the
church here now, he's talking about the remnants out of all
the world here, as he gathers them. He said, behold, I will
gather them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in
mine anger and in my fury and in great wrath, and I will bring
them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely,
and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, and
I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me
forever. for the good of them and of their
children after them. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart. from me. God puts his fear in
the hearts of his people. In other words, he reveals to
them that the only way he can be doing right, the only way
he can be just in saving them and giving them all the benefits
of salvation, of his mercy and grace, is based on the finished
work of Christ alone. He brings us to himself through
Christ crucified, and he keeps us that way. They shall not depart
from me. If you've been brought to this
fear, if you've been given this fear, there's no way you can
leave. the God of the Scriptures, the
just God and Savior, the Savior He sent to save His people, to
put away sin, to satisfy justice, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and the God who saves you based on that righteousness charged
to you. You can't go somewhere else. Brother Leon and I were
just talking about that a few minutes ago. You can't leave
the message that talks to you about the glory of God in salvation. You can't leave it. You can't
go back where you came from. You've repented of that. It's
dead works. It's idolatry. You can't go back
there. Either Christ died for you and
his death ended your punishment. In other words, there's no possibility
that you can ever come under the wrath of God. No possibility
that He'll ever pour out His wrath on you. By His stripes,
you're healed. You already have been and forever
will be healed by Christ's death alone. You already are and forever
will be eternally in God's favor. He declares you unchangeably
righteous based on Christ's righteousness imputed alone. Now, you're either
that or you're this, you're facing the punishment you justly deserve
without recourse, without anything you can do about it. So the only
hope of sinners, and it's a good hope, and it's the hope of the
gospel. Look to Christ alone. Come to Him. Come to a just God
and Savior based on Christ's righteousness imputed alone.
Under a just God, there's no possibility. A lot of people
think that, a lot of people who call themselves Christians think
that, well, some Christ died for could end up under God's
wrath. In this word, there's no possibility that any sinner
Christ died for can end up under His wrath. He's given them a
Savior who delivered them from that wrath. He bore that wrath
in His body on the tree. They can't come under that wrath.
He's made them righteous based on Christ's righteousness imputed
alone. Fear motivates everything we
do. The question is, which fear is
it? Is it that legal fear that we've done but maybe haven't
done quite enough and we need to continue doing? Is it that
fear? Or is it the reverential fear
that sees God just to save us, to forgive us, to bless us with
all spiritual blessings based on Christ's work for us? Without
any contribution from us, without us having to meet a condition
or fulfill a requirement. We all start out in legal fear.
We all start out under that fear of punishment. We all start out
in bondage, going about to establish our own righteousness. But Christ
won't leave a single one of His sheep there. He's given a people,
and He's going to deliver them from that fear. He will fight
that fear in every one of His sheep and overcome that fear
by the fear that regards His Father's redemptive glory. Fear
not, little children. God put his fear in your heart
that you shall not depart from him. You can't. So I close by
encouraging you, whoever you are, whoever's listening, I encourage
you to seek. Seek to be found in Christ and
his righteousness imputed alone. Seek to God who's just to save
you based on that work and that work alone. Seek to God who in
a people of his choosing and a people that he calls out of
darkness by his gospel and he will not fail to overcome that
legal fear by that reverential fear in your lifetime In your
generation, he's going to call his people out of that legal
fear and into that reverential fear. This verse out of the psalm
that I had Brother Randy read, I'll close with this, Psalm 34
and verse 9. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no wont, no lack to them that fear him. We're
blessed. If we're blessed in Christ, we're
blessed with all blessings forever. May the Lord enable his people
to rejoice in Christ.