Few today can repeat from a cheerful
heart what Mrs. Manoa answered, if the Lord had
meant to destroy us, He would not have showed us such things
as these." Many of God's people live in a state of fear. Many little children of God sitting
under law preaching sees a manifestation of God dreads rather than rejoices
about it. If you were under law, you have something to fear. Now,
I hope you get this this morning because this is very important.
I'm trying to figure out this thing of the Christian life.
Growing up, much of my thoughts concerning God and church were
like that of Jacob. How dreadful is this place. It
is none other than the house of God. You see, legalism or
law preaching or salvation by works preaching will lead you
to fear because there's no hope in law works. Are you following
me? It's under this message that
there's no condemnation, no judgment, that we find tremendous joy.
I'll just flat out tell you, I'm not hell bound. I'm a hell of a sinner, but I'm
not hell bound. I've been saved by the amazing
grace of God. And I'm rejoicing in that. And
every day as I see my own failures, I rejoice in that fact. I'm so
grateful it's by grace. In the Bible, in the book of
Galatians where we have the allegory of Sarah and Hagar, Hagar being
the slavish woman representing the law, the bondwoman, The apostle
Paul said, Hagar genders to bondage. Let me tell you, if you're here
today, and you're counting on the 10 commandments to take you
to heaven, you're fearful, because you have some real doubts about
yourself. If you're honest, and only honest
people go to heaven. The rest of you will perish in
your sins, because you're not honest about your sinnership.
And that salvation is a gift of grace, And what I'm attempting
to do today is let you know, don't fear. As you go through
life, don't be afraid. Learn to be able to say this,
our Father, which art in heaven, or how about this, Papa, Papa, Abba, Father, which is Papa,
Papa, and I'm not talking about the Pope. I'm talking about God
Almighty Himself that has saved you and loved you with an everlasting
love. And by the way, He didn't save
you to lose you. He saved you to keep you. Don't
be afraid, little child of God. The first note of the message
from the angels was, the days of fear are over. The days of
fear are over for we're not under law but under grace. The foretaste
of the advent is fear not. God has come to earth. Don't
be afraid about that. And as we enter this A Christmas
holiday? Let's rejoice in this fact that
God has come to earth not to spy out our sins, but actually
to deliver us from our sins. And let's rejoice in this, for
God so loved the world that He gave. I just got goosebumps up
here by myself. that God so loved you. He gave His only begotten Son
for you. You have nothing to be afraid
of. Oh, I know what the devil reminds
you of, right? He reminds you of things you've
done, things you've said, things you've stolen. Your adulterous
mind. He reminds you of all of that. He'll remind you of your abortions,
your drunkenness, your drug use. And when you look at that and
begin from a legalistic standpoint to look at that, you begin to
shake about this business of having a sudden heart attack and facing God. But not in this. that God has come to you. When
you would not come to Him, He came to you. You did not find
God. He wasn't lost. He found you. You were the lost one. And He
says to you, don't be afraid. The antidote for fear is this
sweet message that God has come to you. Fear not.