I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 29. Proverbs chapter 29. I'd like
to look at one verse. Verse 25. Proverbs 29, 25. The scripture reveals, the fear of man bringeth a snare,
but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Margin says, set on high. The fear of man produces. The fear of man bringeth,
it produces a snare. Anxiety. Anxiety within, by nature now,
and fear because of what others think or say or can do. Fear. It's like a noose around
our neck. No man born in Adam is exempt.
Fear. When Adam ate of the fruit forbidden
of God, fear. Turn with me to Genesis
chapter three. When he ate of that fruit, A result of that transgression
was that now he was afraid. He'd never been afraid. Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 6 to 13 says, and when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord called unto Adam
and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and
I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said to
the woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Because of fear, fear that now
was found within man. Because fear was there, a snare
was there too. Bait or a lure, that's what that
means, a snare. Man now had to look for a refuge. Now he was guilty. Now his conscience
revealed something to him. What am I gonna do? I gotta have
a way of escape. Fear caused that. Guilt because
of sin made Adam do something, told his wife to do something.
We gotta do something about this because now we're exposed. What did he do? Got him some
fig leaves and sewed them together Now I'll cover myself before
God. Oh, what a snare. Now he's ensnared. Because of sin, man now mistrust,
he distrust God. Distrust his word, distrust his
power, distrust his providence, distrust his goodness. Fear of
man, fear found within man is the very reason that this whole
world outside of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ has
found himself in all of this God dishonoring false religion. Man, in his conscience, he's
guilty. He's ensnared because of fear. He's gonna do something about
it. He's gonna find him something, some place that he can go and
get him some refuge. Why? He knows he's naked. He knows he is. Adam knew it.
What'd he do? Made him a refuge. Snared. The only thing that's gonna break
a man out of that snare, a strong man's gonna have to come in.
One stronger than the one's got him snared We're gonna have to
rescue him by power, grace, mercy, by God's good pleasure. And because
the fear of man, fear that's found within man, and he's afraid
of other men, afraid of what they're gonna think, what they're
gonna say about us, what they might do to us, He said, well,
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not afraid of that. Whenever Abraham was coming into
cities there, had his wife with him, Sarah, obviously she was
a beautiful woman. What'd he tell her? He said,
you say that you're my sister, because if you say that you're
my wife, they'll kill me. He was afraid. How about Elijah? Now Elijah
the prophet, now there's a man. Elijah was found in a place he
was gonna call upon the Lord to answer from heaven. Ahab and Jezebel and their 450
prophets, Baal. Elijah told them, he said, we're
gonna build an altar and the God that answers by fire. That's
God. They built him an altar, put
their sacrifice on the altar, jumped up and down, cut themselves,
and hollered all day. God didn't answer. The altar was repaired, a sacrifice
placed on it, and Elijah asked God, to answer from heaven and
the fire from heaven fell and consumed the fire and licked
it up. Elijah killed those 450 prophets
of Baal. There was a man that believed
God. And Ahab went back and told Jezebel
this is what he did. Turn to 1 Kings, hold your place
there. 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings 19,
now here's a man Can you imagine calling on God
to ask God to answer from heaven and fire from heaven falls, takes
it, consumes that sacrifice, licks up all the water? And whenever Ahab went and told
his wife Jezebel what had happened, 1 Kings 19, 2 and 3. Then Jezebel
sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to
me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one
of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he
arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which
belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. The fear of man,
fear within and fear without, of what others bringeth a snare. Well, that happened to them,
but those that actually saw the Lord, I mean, those that walked
with God, that wouldn't happen to them. The Lord told Peter,
when Peter told him, he said, all the others will forsake you,
but I never will. You can trust me. I've walked
with you. I've been with you. I've seen
what you've done. your God, your almighty God,
all those disciples that followed the Lord, and when the Lord told
them, said, no man can come to me except it be given unto him
of my Father. That was in John 6. The Lord's getting ready to go
to the cross. That's when Peter told him, he said, the others
will forsake you. But you got a rock here. You got somebody
you can depend on. Trust me. The Lord says, before
the cock crows twice, you're gonna deny me three times. Peter said, it won't happen.
It ain't gonna happen. An old maid come up to him after
they took the Lord and brought him into the trial to be. This maid said, you're one of
them. He said, no. Another one said, no, you, yeah.
Yeah, you, yeah, you're, yeah, I know you are. Your speech betrays
you. I know who you are. You're with
him. I saw you. I don't know the man. Third comes up, tells him that,
curses. I told you before, one of the
accounts said the Lord just looked at him. Can you imagine? I just, every time I read that
passage of scripture, That's me. That's me. The fear of man bringeth a snare. But listen, but whoso putteth
his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Thanks be unto God. While I know that this old man
is still there, this old man has never improved. This old
man has never been improved. This old man has never been improved. Fear is still found within every
one of God's people. Every regenerate, every one of,
we're still afraid and we struggle. But here's the good news. Whoso putteth his trust, his
confidence, whosoever seeketh for refuge in the Lord, in Jehovah. Look at that verse. Whoso putteth
his trust in the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital T. What
is that saying? I believe that almighty God,
from before the foundation of the world, has chosen me in Christ.
I believe when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he
went to the cross in dying for his sheep, dying for the elect,
dying for the church, dying for the bride only, dying for her. No blood was shed in vain at
Calvary. No blood. He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. I believe the spirit of God.
called me out of darkness, given me a heart after Christ. And
though I see that old man still in me, though I still find fear,
I just, I'm fearful. I just, I
struggle. I struggle, just like you do.
Whosoever putteth his trust in the Lord, now listen to this,
shall be safe, shall be safe. Shall be, as I said in the margin,
set on high, exalted of God, too high for capture. Safe from what? Safe from what? Anything that can eternally harm
us. Man, by nature, by nature being born
in Adam, fallen in Adam, we're afraid, we're afraid, afraid
of man. What's the worst thing that a
man can do for me? Or do to me, let me say it like that. What's
the worst thing that a man can do to me? Kill me, kill me. But according to the word of
God, Matthew 10, 28, and fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which
is able to destroy both soul and body. What if I am killed? What if I'm murdered? What if I'm murdered and I'm
put in a grave? I put in the grave, according
to the word of God, 1 Corinthians 15, 55, 57. Here's what the scripture
says. O death, where is your sting? Where is thy thing? O grave,
where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be unto God which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What can man do to me? What can death do to me? What
can death do? What can the grave do to a believer? The Apostle Paul declared concerning
trusting in the Lord, Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ. And
after this life, the good part. The good part, gain, gain. For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. Brother Scott, you say, you know
this. He said, man was made, created
to live forever. And there's something about death
that's fearful. I get it, I get it. I told you before, I've sat in
a doctor's office, heard a doctor use a word that strikes fear
in a man, cancer. I know what it feels like. Paul the apostle says, for me to live as Christ, and
to die is gain. Second Corinthians 5.8, we are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the
body and present with the Lord. I was just talking to Don Frankie
here a moment ago. He was talking about some of
the folks that the Lord has taken out of our congregation, our brethren. Mom, dads, and
brothers and sisters. You think of the gain they have
right now. Think of the joy. Think of the reward. The fear
of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in
the Lord, shall be safe. He's safe. He's safe. There's a day coming in which
we're all going to stand before God. And the books are going to be
opened. And every man, every woman found
not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The book will be open. The books and the book. And those not found written in
the Book of Life are going to give account out of the books.
Out of their own works. And they're going to come up
short. They're going to be wanting. Old Bill Shizer was. Been weighing
the balance. come up short. Oh, but those
that put their trust in the Lord, they're going to be safe. Not those that plead the exercise
of their free will, and they trust in themselves that are
righteous, but those that put themselves in the hands of Almighty
God, trusting God, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. In closing, what assurance do
we have of truly being safe? Having trusted the Lord, I'm telling you, I wonder how
many times I've thought on that. Just trying to be honest with
God. Lord, You said those that come to you. And I've asked myself, Lord,
would you show me, would you, would you show me one more time?
What is it to come to you? What is it to come to you? Is the only thing I can tell
you. I believe him, I believe him. Lord, I'm coming the only
way I know how. I believe you. That's the only
way I know to come to Christ. What else are you gonna do? I
told you, the only difference between me and Dick right here
is about, ah, Dick, I'm gonna guess 25 feet, 30 feet maybe. Ain't no difference to him walking
down this aisle. That's not coming to Christ. This is all I got. What is the
assurance that we have that we shall be safe? You got one thing. You got God's word. Abraham believed God. He believed God and it was counted
unto him for righteousness. Someone may say, you mean to
tell me that all of your hope, all of your assurance you got is that you just, you think that
that's all you are gonna do, just you're gonna believe God.
That's all I got. I don't have anything else. I can tell you
this, I don't have any trust in myself. I'm so flippant, I'm
just so wayward and just here and there all over the place.
Psalm 138, to I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise
thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth for thou has
magnified thy word above all thy name. There's nothing that
God has magnified more concerning himself and his word. The written word
that we have right here declares the living word himself. Everything
that Almighty God has promised, everything that He provides,
everything that we need, He set forth in His Word. This is all
we got. This is it. You don't have anything
else. I need to hear again of Him. I need to hear it. Tell me one
more time. Tell me one more time how Almighty
God has been pleased put away the guilt of his people through
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me one more time
how salvation is of grace. All of grace through faith in
Christ Jesus by his word. He quickens us. He sustains us. He enlightens us. He comforts
us. You tell me one more time about
security. Tell me one more time about my
safety, because it's sweet to my ear. There's no snare of trust
in him. God's people hear him proclaim,
and they say in their heart, thanks be unto God, which giveth
us the victory. I pray the Lord comfort our hearts
this morning. For Christ's sake and our sake,
amen.