Any person who serves our Lord
in any capacity, with any measure of commitment and heart, is going
to face opposition. Opposition from the devil, opposition
from the world, opposition from our own flesh. And of course,
the way we express that is by saying, I just don't want to.
I just don't feel like it. opposition. Christ said to his
disciples in the world, you shall have tribulation. The Apostle
Paul said, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution. And certainly he knew what he
was talking about. Greater man as the Apostle Paul
was, there were times in his own spirit when he wasn't just
skipping from mountaintop to mountaintop. Knowing that our God is absolutely
sovereign and in control of all things, that is precious to God's
children. And we know He is. But that does
not exempt us from the weakness of our sinful flesh. It does
not exempt us from disappointment at times, from discouragement
at times. Now it should, but it don't. And the very greatest men who
have ever lived, ever walked this earth, have been there. David, a heart for God. Oh, what a heart for God David
had. But yet he repeatedly asked himself,
in his trials and sufferings, he repeatedly said this, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? What have you got to be so down
about? I remember our former pastor, Preacher Huntley, used
to say, people, he'd ask somebody how they're doing and they'd
say, I'm okay under the circumstances. And he'd say, well, what are
you doing under there? You better You better not base how you're
doing on circumstances. David said, what reason do I
have to be cast down with such a God as I have? Jeremiah, a
great man, a godly man, a faithful man. He got in a place one time
and said, I'll just quit. I'll not make mention of him
anymore. I'll not speak his name anymore. Elijah got into shape and said,
Lord, nobody cares. Just let me die and be done with
it. And the Apostle Paul, earlier in this epistle, chapter 2, he
said, I had no rest in my spirit. In chapter 4, he said, we're
troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. He said
rejected as Christ was rejected, despised as Christ was despised,
hated as Christ was hated, mocked as Christ was mocked, accused
as Christ was accused. Not an easy road. Now here in
chapter 7, the passage we read is some statements along this
line. Verse 5, For when we were come into Macedonia,
our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fighting, within
were fears. Now the immediate context of
this in this epistle is Paul's concern at that present time
of the state of the Corinthian church and of Titus, his fellow
laborer. But in a larger context, considering
all the concerns and fears of God's people, these last three
words in verse 5 is what I want to talk about. This will be the
title of our message this morning. were fears. Within were fears. What kind of fears? Now we do
know and understand that the fear of the Lord is a precious
thing. A priceless thing. Psalm 111
verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs
14, 27, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. Psalm 19, 9, the fear of the
Lord is clean, enduring forever. Good thing. Enduring forever. If you're ever blessed with this
blessing, the fear of the Lord, then it's forever. I've known true believers to
get away from their commitment to the Lord and do some awful
things and try to enjoy life without any thought of God. But
they couldn't do it. The fear of the Lord was still
in their heart. I'm so glad it's in my heart
this morning. You can't cuss it out. You can't drink it out. You can't dope it out. If you're
ever given by free and sovereign grace, by divine grace, this
precious gift, the fear of the Lord, then it's forever. It's a wonderful thing. A wonderful
thing. I've known other people who obviously
did not have this gift. Be very active in religion for
a while and walk out and never look back. Never look back. But here Paul is talking about
something else. He's talking about something
very familiar to all of us. Fears in this flesh. Fears in
this weak and feeble and sinful heart. And Paul confesses within
were fears. I know our godless society today
says, no fear. You see bumper stickers, no fear. T-shirts, no fear. Romans 3.18, there is no fear
of God. before their eyes, and they'll
tell you. No fear. But for God's little children,
here's the story. Within were fears. Within were
fears. God's children don't go about
boasting of giving the devil a black eye. Uh uh. God's children don't hoot about
making the devil mad. Uh uh. Got enough trouble without
trying to stir any. God's children know how feeble
and weak and frail our hearts really are. And we know that
we're no match for the devil. Within we're fears. Tell you
something else, God's children don't dwell too much on a mansion. next door to Jesus. Stars in
my crown and all that. No. God's children in this hour
and in every hour in history are too busy, humbly confessing,
within were fears. Within were fears. Lord, it must
be you or I'll fall. God's children are not going
about publicizing what great Christians we are and what a
great job we're doing. No, we're too busy confessing.
Within were fears. Like a wandering sheep out in
the cold, with the wolves howling on every side, within were fears. What kind of fears? of not believing enough. Fears of not loving Christ enough. Fears of not being one of God's
children. Fears of being deceived. I will
just hurriedly give you three thoughts about this, about such
fears. Number one, the root of such
fears. the root of such fears. What
is it? Where does it come from? You say, well, I know the Bible. I've been in church all my life.
I believe. I know what I believe, but I
still fear. Some would say the root of our
fears is the devil. He makes me doubt. Others would say, no, it's just
me. I just don't have enough faith. It's unbelief. I just don't believe enough. I'm going to say something right
now you maybe never have heard, and maybe you won't ever hear
it again, but the real root of our fears is faith. It is God-given faith that produces
these fears. You say, what do you mean? Well,
if you had no firm conviction that God really exists, then
you wouldn't fear facing Him. If you did not believe His Word
is true, You wouldn't fear having disobeyed it, as you have. If you didn't believe God is
infinitely holy, you wouldn't fear having come
short of His glory, which you have. If you didn't believe God judges
sin, you would not be concerned about your sin. If you didn't possess God-given
faith, you wouldn't worry about any of these things. Unbelievers
don't. The world don't. They don't fear
breaking God's laws. They don't fear disobeying God's
Word. Why? They're unbelievers and
don't have all these fears you have. Why? It's your faith, your God-given
conviction that God is real, the Bible is true, heaven is
real, hell is real. So the root of a believer's fear
is our faith. That makes it precious. Number two, the reason for such fear What's
the purpose or what's the value of such? Why would God permit
his child to fear about anything? Well, it serves to exercise this
faith he's put in us. It makes evident the enmity and
the warfare between the flesh and the spirit. It makes evident that there's
something living in me that did not originate in this world.
There is something living in me that I did not get genetically
from my parents, my birth. There has been an invasion from
heaven. God himself has come and moved
into my heart. And He is so holy and everything
else here is so unholy. He is so right and everything
else is so wrong. It's this faith that has created
a conflict, a warfare within my own spirit. The reason for it. Not only that, our fears reveal
the true character of our sinful nature and the shame of it. You see, sinful nature cannot
believe God. Sinful flesh cannot love God. Only God's children are saying
and groaning, Oh, that I loved my Lord more. Oh, that I loved
him more. Sinful flesh cannot obey God. It can make a stab at it for a short while. And we fear in this flesh because
we cannot believe God as we should. We fear because we cannot love
God as we should. And we fear because we do not
obey God as we should. We know Psalm 34, 18 says, The
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit. We know that. And yet, at the
same time, we feel the coldness and the hardness of our hearts
and we fear. We fear, really, whether we have
the fear of the Lord. But see, having these fears frees
us from the pride of the no-fear crowd. It's impossible. God's child
is not going to be like this no fear crowd. No. Within we're fierce. To have convictions causes you
to fear, struggle with having to go against the majority in the workplace,
or maybe even in the family or among friends. But what a blessing
to have such convictions, even though it produces fears, fears
of rejection, fear of being laughed at, fear of not fitting in. But oh, dear friend, how blessed,
how blessed, how blessed of the Lord you are. for not being able to go along, even though it comes with a measure
of fear, fear of not being liked, fear of not being accepted. What a valuable thing it is.
And then a third thought, and I'll be through, the remedy for
such fears. The remedy is so simple. Not many people want to hear
it. So very simple. The remedy is simply taking God
at His word in everything. In John 10, 27, Jesus said, My
sheep hear my voice. It's not they ought to hear it, or I hope they hear it, or I
wish they'd hear it. No, he says, my sheep hear my
voice. He just got through saying in
the previous verse, the 26th verse of John 10 to a crowd of
unbelievers. He said, you believe not because
you are not of my sheep. This is why you can't believe
me. This is why everything I say goes in one ear and out the other. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. And then he turns right around
and says, my sheep hear my voice. And the truth is, folks who can
hear God's word audibly, year after year after year, and it
goes in one ear and out the other and are never affected by it, obviously don't belong to the
Lord. My sheep hear my voice, not audibly
as you're hearing my voice right now, but my sheep hear my voice
in the heart, in the heart. Christ's sheep hear my voice
and I know them. I don't just know about them,
I know them. And of course that word know,
you have to run it all the way back to the beginning. Adam knew
his wife Eve and she conceived, brought forth children, planted
seed. Christ says, I know them. I put my seed in their hearts. And it's a ground I've prepared.
And it produces. What's the seed? It's the incorruptible
seed of the Word of God. Not the written Word, the living
Word. And the result is, John 10, 27, I know them, here's the
result, and they follow me. Not ought to, or I wish they
would, but they do. They do. Following Christ does
not make sheep out of goats. It does distinguish sheep from
goats. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish.
Could you take God at His word? I mean, you might have to vote
on it, whether or not the majority believes God's right or not.
You might have to run it through your mind as to whether or not
He'd lie to you. Take God at His Word. I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. They shall
not under any circumstances ever perish. Believe that. Don't question whether Christ
is telling us the truth or not. He is. Believe Him. Don't be trapped as so many are. What can I do? What should I
do? What must I do? A crowd asked
Jesus in the Gospel of John one time, what shall we do that we
might work the works of God? That's all we want. It's just
a job description. Just give us a simple one, two,
three, and we'll do it. And you know what our Lord's
answer was? He said, this is the work of God. Here it is.
Listen real carefully. This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom God has sent. That's it. Believers, believers, believers,
never. perish. They shall never perish. Let me read you something. Christ is our great, always,
sinless, sovereign, loving shepherd. We are his sinful, sickly, fragile,
weak, helpless sheep. And we shall never perish. We
are stiff-necked, but we shall never perish. We are sinful through and through,
but we shall never perish. We are selfish, ignorant, and
full of unbelief, but we shall never perish. We are tempted,
tried, and often cast down, but we shall never perish. We stumble,
we fall, and we cry, but we shall never perish. We sometimes hurt
our fellow sheep, but we shall never perish. Wolves attack us,
but we shall never perish. We often stray from our shepherd,
but we shall never perish. Oh God, give us grace to believe
your promise, to live our lives with confidence in Christ, to
know that our life depends on your word, your son, your power,
your grace, and not ourselves. All our fears, misgivings, and
distrust are completely baseless and inexcusable. For we shall
never perish. Hear the words of your shepherd,
children of God. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand,
I and my father are one." Then he says, my fellow sheep,
let not your hearts be troubled. Christ our shepherd died in our
stead under the wrath of God. His cross will never be discovered
a miscarriage. Get that. His cross will never
be discovered a miscarriage. All for whom He died will never
perish. They will live forever with Him
in glory. Rejoice, brothers and sisters! He died to put away
our sins, to satisfy God's law, to obtain eternal redemption
for us. He died that we might live forever. Through His death
we have eternal life. God cannot, God will not punish
those for whom the shepherd died. Verse John 511, this is the record
that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His
Son. All who believe on God's Son,
all who lay hold of Christ for salvation, all who exercise faith
in Jesus Christ the Lord, be it ever so weak or small faith,
will never perish. They shall never perish. We sometimes sing the old song,
I care not today what tomorrow may bring, if shadow or sunshine
or rain. That doesn't mean we really don't
care. It means we don't have to fear
what tomorrow is going to bring. the Lord I know ruleth over everything
and all of my weary is vain. I remember way back many years
ago when they started putting the Billy Graham crusades on
the TV and my mom and daddy would turn it on to that and of course
I didn't want to hear the preaching but I'd kind of listen to the
music and There was a black woman soloist, Ethel Waters, and she would sing this, Why
should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart be lonely
and long for heaven and home? When Jesus is my portion, My
constant friend is He. His eye is on the sparrow. And
I know He watches me. I mean, if He's looking at all
these little birds around here that we just look at at a glance
and think nothing about it. If His eye is on that sparrow, Christ our Lord said, how much
more worth Are you then many as Paris? I know he watches me. I conclude with this one verse,
Luke 12, 32. Again, the words of Christ, fear
not little flock, for it is your father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. Do you believe that? Fear not. Somebody said, I hadn't checked
this out. Somebody said there are 365 fear nots in the Bible,
one for every day of the year. I don't know about that, but
there's a bunch of them. There's plenty of them. There's enough
of them. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. Lord, help us to believe. All right, let's stand.