So why don't you turn in your
scriptures to Acts chapter 9, and we're rejoining our journey. And I want to remind us again
that it's a journey of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
must not think of anything if the Lord would help us, but see
that this great Redeemer of ours sovereignly rules over all things,
and He guides and directs His church and His people. and in
the wonder of his salvation he has chosen that this man Saul
would be reduced to Paul and he would be put in the dust and
he would be raised up by God to be someone who wrote well
over half of the New Testament and is the apostle to the Gentiles
and so his words so resonate with Gentile thinking. the people sought to kill him
in Damascus. And then when Saul, verse 26,
when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed, or he attempted to
join himself with the disciples, but they were all afraid of him
and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took
him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he
had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him,
and how he had preached boldly in Damascus in the name of Jesus. and he was coming with them and
going out at Jerusalem and he spoke boldly in the name of the
Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians but they went about
to slay him which when the brethren knew they brought him down to
Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus. This is a verse that
I want to look at today, Lord willing. Then had the churches
rest. That word rest means peace, actually.
Then had the churches peace throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria
and were edified. The churches were grown up. They
were built together. The picture is one of the house
being built. They were edified. Walking in
the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were
multiplied. The Church grew. The Church of
God grew and was edified by these two remarkable things. And they
were walking in it. It was the course of the life
of the Church to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost. And such is not just the journey
of the early church, but it's the journey of every church of
God ever since, and it's the journey of every believer ever
since. And Lord willing, He might open
that verse to us this morning that we might see our Saviour.
Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria,
and were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in
the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. There is such
a thing as a fear that God brings, and it's a fear that God brings
into the lives of His people when they meet Him, and they
meet Him in the Gospel. And it's a fear that He continues
to exercise throughout their lives. God's children fear God. The church in these early days
is typical of the church throughout the rest of the world. These
examples that we have here before us are patterns of what was going
to happen until the Lord Jesus Christ returns. And not only
are they patterns for churches, they are actually tracing out
the biography of God's children. All of God's children have their
biography written in the scriptures, which is why we have so much
narrative material in the scriptures, that God's children will see,
will see the charts and the lines of their path marked out in the
paths of the saints of God, whether it's the Shulamite in the Song
of Solomon, whether it's David, whether it's all the saints of
the Old Testament times, they will see something of the experiences
of their lives, because God hasn't changed, man hasn't changed. The children of God are blessed
with the presence of God, and they are blessed with a godly
fear of Him. And may that be our portion.
May we see not just what these verses say, but may we be led
of the Lord to see that this is the portion of all of God's
children, and it's our portion. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would take your words and cause them to be spirit
and life to us today, that we might see in the lives of your
people so long ago, our lives lived out in this world, We praise
you, Heavenly Father, that you change not. Therefore, the children
of Jacob are not consumed, and that their journey in our times
gone past is the journey of your people today, that we might,
through the comfort of the Scriptures, find rest and peace and hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for your word. We thank you for your word of promise and we thank
you for the Blessed Holy Spirit who takes that word and applies
it to the lives of his people, revealing the Lord Jesus Christ
again and again. We praise you, our Father, for
the promise of your blessing as you gather your people that
you minister to their hearts in ways that are beyond the understanding
of natural man. We pray you would bless us for
Jesus' sake. Amen. So there was a time of
peace. There were only a few times of
peace in that early church. It was the persecutor is now
gone. And when he comes to Jerusalem,
every time Paul comes to Jerusalem, he gets into trouble. Now that
he's a believer, he gets into trouble with the Jews. And so
he's actually gone. He's gone down to Caesarea. They
sent him. He was about to be slain again. They went about to slay him,
verse 29. Such is the path of all of God's
preachers in this world, that people will go about to slay
them. We are polite in this day and age, so we'll slay their
reputation, and we'll slay all sorts of other things about them,
but we'll slay them. We'll want them dead and buried. We will want the testimony and
the witness of God, the religious world especially will want the
witness and the testimony of God to be shut up from them. They had peace. They had this
peace for this time. That word rest means peace. They
kept on having peace. There is a peace with God and
there is a peace for God's people in these times. And as we see
in the rest of this chapter and in the following chapter, the
peace was not a peace for people to rest on their laurels. The
peace that God brought to the church in the world was a piece
that was used of God and used by the church to proclaim the
gospel far and wide. And Peter, we'll see in these
next verses, goes on a missionary journey and then meets up with
Cornelius. He goes into the Gentile territory and he comes back to
Jerusalem and he has the same problem that everyone has when
free grace is proclaimed. The Jews yet again disputed with
Peter. There is a peace that comes at
times. There is that remarkable peace
that God brings into the lives of his people. I do love Romans
5 verse 1. And if you have something in
your hand, it's really good to change a comma in the scriptures. More damage has been done by
this comma than any other punctuation mark in all of human history.
Because the chapter divisions and the verse divisions are something
that were added 700 or 800 years ago, but the scriptures need
to be read straight through so often and skip through the divisions.
Because it speaks of the Lord Jesus in verse 25, who was delivered
for our offences and was raised again for our justification. He was delivered because of our
offences. That's why he was delivered over
to death. And he was raised because of our justification. Therefore,
therefore being justified, therefore being justified. That's what
the previous verse says, declared our justification. And that word
justification is a passive word. It means that you weren't active
in your justification. Someone did it all. Someone alone
did it all. He justified his people. It is
to be declared in the court of God to have had no sin ever. When God justifies, when a judge
in our courts justifies someone, he's declaring that that person
never committed the crime. And such is the wonder of the
gospel, that our sins were laid on him. He was delivered over
for our offences, and he was raised for our justification.
Therefore being justified by faith, We're not justified by
faith, but we're being justified by faith. We have peace with
God. We enjoy the peace that God has
already made. We're not trying to make peace
with God. People talk about saying to other people, have you made
peace with God? You don't make peace with God.
God makes peace with you. It's much better peace, the peace
that he makes and the peace that he brings. We have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the peace of his people.
He is the rest of his people. But to go back to Acts chapter
9, the church had this time of rest and this time of peace and
it was a time of growing and a time of healing and a time
of them being brought together. the time of that sweet time where
they didn't face any persecution for just a while and for the
rest of the church history they will face persecution for the
next 10 generations they faced persecution every generation
so until the third halfway through the third fourth century there
wasn't a congregation of believers in the world that didn't have
members who had suffered, and most of them had members and
friends who had died under those persecutions. But this is this
special time of peace. And the church was multiplied
and the church grew. That word edified means, once
again, it's a passive word. It's something that is God building
this church. It actually is building a spiritual
house. We are the temple of God. We
are the household of God. 1 Peter 2.5 speaks of us being
built together. We are being built together.
You also as lively stones are being built up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God in the Lord Jesus Christ. acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That's what's happened and what
happens in every church, doesn't it? Every church, every church
where God brings his gospel and God reveals his people is a church
that's actually built by God. It's one of the claims that we
can have, isn't it? That we have said from the very
beginning, if there's another church in this town that preaches
the gospel, we will shut down. We've made that promise and I
make it here again. If there's another church in
this district, if there's another church within driving distance,
we'll close down and we will join with them and go and drive
to wherever they are. God's churches are built by God
and it's the only possible comfort for the souls of God's people
is that it's the work of God, that He's begun that work and
it's the work that He's begun and the work that He's promised
to finish. Ephesians is remarkable, it talks about that peace, where
he is our peace in Ephesians 2.14, who has both made one and
broken down the middle war of petition between us, between
the Jews and the Gentiles, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace unto you which were far off, and to
them that were nigh. And for through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God. This household that is described
here in Acts 9.31. And are built on the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. It is the standing
wonder, the standing miracle in this age, isn't it? That God
has promised to get glory for His Son in this world. If you
read on in Ephesians, He has promised to get glory for His
Son in one place in all of this creation and in all of this time
until He comes back. And that is in the gathering
of His people together. And the early churches were little
gatherings of people like us. Whether it was in Philippi or
Colossae, they were little gatherings of God's people. But God had
put them together, and God had joined them together, and God
had taught them the Gospel. and God had walked among them,
and God had led them in places, and he'd led them, as we see
in this verse, he's led them to grow and to be edified, to
be built up, and to be multiplied, were these two remarkable things
occurring. They were walking in the fear
of the Lord. and in the comfort of the Holy
Ghost. And it seems contradictory, doesn't it? That the fear of
the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost will be put together,
and that they would be the two things that the Lord used to
edify, to grow that church, and to multiply his church. It seems
contradictory. I trust the Lord would show us,
and I trust some of you here would know this fear. I trust
all of us here would know this fear, this godly fear. In fact,
fear is so often used in the New Testament throughout the
Scriptures, it's used far more often than the word love. Whenever
people meet with God in the scriptures, there is this reverential awe
of Him. And they, like Saul, are knocked
off their high horse and they are put in the dust before Him.
And God never does anything in the rest of their lives to diminish
that fear. In fact, in this early church,
you'll see again and again that he goes to great lengths to actually
increase that fear. It is a name of his. It is, in
Genesis 31, 42, it's God the Father, God my Father, God of
Abraham, and the fear of Isaac. It's as if it's one of his titles. And there's a remarkable verse
in Hebrews 5, 7, which describes our Lord Jesus Christ. It says,
who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers
and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. He was heard in that he feared. The experiences of the saints
and the experiences of the Lord Jesus Christ are joined together. Hebrews 2 is a remarkable verse
that I've pondered a lot. for a long time, and I'm still
waiting for more light to be shed on it, but it is remarkable
what I think it says. It says, the children were partakers
of flesh and blood. He 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,
to set them free, who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. Part of the prevenient grace
in the lives of God's people, part of that activity of God
long before they come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
is to bring them into these places where they're in bondage, aren't
they? And one of the bondages is that they are fearful of death. We keep thinking, don't we, that
the people go down the road here to the funeral place out there
and the coffins go by all the time and hearses and the other
cars following. And yet when you actually meet
people, you know that that is the destiny of everyone. Everyone
knows that they're going to end up out there or somewhere else
just like it. And yet, we have so reduced it to a joke in this
nation of ours, and we've so hidden death away, that you meet
very, very few people who are fearful of dying. I was always
fearful of dying when I was a little bloke. Always fearful of dying. It gives me the heebie-jeebies,
these people that sort of do all these, what are they called?
These sports they're called now, where you actually put yourself
in danger of death and the adrenaline is the high, isn't it really?
But God's children See, it was deliver them, he delivered them,
if you read that verse closely, he delivered that particular
group of people who through fear of death, they were fearful of
death, they were fearful that in death they were going to meet
a holy God in judgment. They were in bondage to those
fears. but He's delivered them. He delivered
them. So God exercises that fear. He exercises that fear before
they're saved and then He exercises that fear after they're saved. We've got to be careful in the
scriptures about talking about things like fear because there
is a natural fear, isn't it? I'm frightened of all sorts of
things and so are you probably. I only have to put you in enough
of a situation and you'll be frightened. I don't like being
on the edge of cliffs and things. I go up to that thing at Fitzroy
Falls where you actually walk out over the edge, and I think,
dear oh dear, why is this hole here? Well, the hole was made
there behind the flood a long time ago. But the hole also was
made there because rocks fall down, and this thing is just
perched up there on rocks, and you're looking straight down,
and it's a long way down. And I don't like being out there
for too long. When we had our sawmill up the
north coast, we actually had someone found this enormous funnel
web. It was just huge. they put it on the control panel
of the sawmill and we used to and I knew it was there and I
knew it was in a glass jar and I knew it couldn't bite me but
every time I walked in there and I wasn't thinking it was
just this cold sugar go up my spine I don't like them. But there is, in the scriptures,
a sinful fear, isn't there? Adam was fearful of God. There
is a sinful fear that causes people to run away from God.
And there is a godly fear. And this godly fear is what we're
talking about here and what this scripture is talking about. And
it's a godly fear that actually comes from a confrontation with
God through the preaching of the Gospel. It comes with a meeting
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a godly fear. It comes from
meeting with Him. If you turn back to Acts chapter
2, you'll see that this is how the church began. And it is remarkable. You can go back to the message
that we preached some considerable time ago on this particular verse. But here are these people, this
crowd, this enormous crowd on the day of Pentecost, and they
heard the gospel proclaimed. They heard the Lord Jesus proclaimed. They heard the fact that He was
put to death by the full knowledge, deliberate counsel and full knowledge
of God. And they with their wicked hands, there they were standing
before Peter with blood on their hands and blood on their consciences.
And this Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ And Peter said, repent and be
baptized. In the name, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise
is unto you and your children and all that are afar off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. And when God calls them,
When God calls these people, there is repentance, there is
an open acknowledgement of their sin and their wickedness and
their complicity in all of what's happened before them, and that
they are fully responsible for the situation that they are in.
There they are, standing before the judge of this universe, guilty
of his murder. That's the situation that they
are in. And with many other words, verse 40, did he testify and
exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. And in verse 41, they gladly
received his word and were baptized, and the same day were added unto
them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking
of bread and in prayers. That's what they were doing.
There they were, converted, brought into the fellowship of the church,
their sins taken away by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's tree. They are now recipients of the
Holy Spirit. They gladly received this word
and they're added to these apostles, added to the church. Verse 43,
what does it say? And fear came upon every soul. Fear comes upon converted souls. Fear comes upon souls who have
gladly received the word of God. And such was the foundation laid
in those early days of the church, and such is the foundation that
still stands today. When God truly converts someone
and they gladly receive the words of life, there is a fear of God,
there is a reverential awe of God. And if you go over a couple
of chapters to the situation with Ananias and Sapphira, when
you think of the story of Ananias and Sapphira, God had so many
ways to remove Ananias and Sapphira from the church. And yet he did
it in such a way that the end result upon it in verse 11 is
that great fear came upon all the church and as many Great fear came upon all the
Church. God not only brought these people
to fear having been converted, He worked in such a way that
there was a reverential awe of God in the lives of these people.
And it is a characteristic of the unbelievers that there is
no fear of God before their eyes. In fact, if you recall in Genesis
20, when twice Abraham lied about Sarah, his wife, because she
was beautiful. She was a remarkable lady. She was old and beautiful,
but beautiful. And she was attractive. And Abraham
deceived Abimelech in Genesis 20, And he was asked, he said,
why? Why have you done this? Why have
you deceived me? Why have you brought this curse
of God upon my house? And Abraham said, because I thought,
surely the fear of God is not in this place. and they will
slay me for my wife's sake." There's a lot of gospel message
in that that you might grasp. But nevertheless, where there
is no fear of God, the father of faith is fearful. Where there
is no fear of God, God's children have reason to be fearful. There
is, in this fear of God, there is what the people keep describing
as a reverential awe. And I like the term, and I like
the fact that when people meet God, they are in awe of Him.
But I'd wonder whether we actually, I can have a reverential awe
about things that I'm not fearful of. I can have a reverential
awe of just magnificent things. There are things in creation
and there are things in the creation of man that just take your breath
away at times. You go into these extraordinary
cathedrals and these remarkable buildings and see amazing things
and you just have this, how on earth did someone, a human being,
manage to do that? But this godly fear, I think,
runs deeper, doesn't it? It runs much deeper, and it runs
much deeper because I think it is a vein, a vein of life that
comes from God. God's children fear Him. It is, in the scriptures, just
remarkable how the blessings of God are associated with the
fear of God, so, so often that it's just quite remarkable. to
think that it's not preached on as much as it should be. Godly
fear is a gift from God, and those who have that fear of God
established in their hearts, they're the saved people. That's
what we've seen in Acts chapter 2. And listen to some of the
promises that God makes. The Lord takes pleasure in them
that fear Him. Those who fear God are accepted
by Him. in Acts 10, 34 and 35, the Lord
pitieth them that fear Him. The eye of the Lord is upon them
that fear Him. God's hand is open to and ready
to feed them that fear Him. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. The only
people who know the covenant of God are the people, and he's
talking about the eternal covenant that we talk about all the time.
What happened in eternity and what determines what happens
throughout all of time. That great eternal covenant in
which the Lord Jesus Christ stood before his father and he took
absolute responsibility for all of his children. all of the children
the Father gave Him, they come to Him, He takes their sins away,
and He will come into their lives, and He will save them in His
own time. And that secret is shown to them
that fear Him. And God, in Malachi chapter 3,
in the last chapter, the second last chapter of the Old Testament,
says that there will be this remembrance. He will remember
people who fear him. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened. He heard
and hearded. He listened and he heard. And
a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared
the Lord and thought upon his name. Those that think upon the
name of God, the character of God, fear him. In fact, Psalm
31.19 says, How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid
up for them that fear thee, in which thou hast wrought, for
them that trust in thee before the sons of men, men who trust
him in the midst of the sons of men. When God works in the
hearts of people, He encourages and He grows this fear. That's
what our verse says, isn't it? The church was edified, the church
was growing, and the church was multiplied, growing in this fear
of God. There is. a warning in the scriptures
about things that are just taught by the hand of men. In Isaiah
29 and 28 is the great description of man-made works religion, the
religion of men, the religion of men that claims to worship
God. He says something which is a
shocking statement, isn't it? One of the most challenging statements
in all of the scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ himself repeats
it. Therefore the Lord says, Isaiah 29, 13, for as much as
this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips
to honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, their
fear toward me is taught by the precept of man. This fear that
we're talking about, this godly fear, is taught by God, it's
exercised by God, and it grows by God's work. So what do you
fear? As a Christian, what do you fear? What do you fear? You see, what you fear shows
what you value and esteem in so many ways, isn't it? I fear
lying to you. I fear being someone who teaches
just the precept of men. I fear being someone who honours
the Lord with my words and my heart is far from him. I'm fearful. I'm fearful of being a false
teacher. The deepest, darkest pits of hell are reserved for
people like me who stand here and have people listen to them
speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. I fear being a liar. I trust
that you will learn to hate lies. Hate lies of any sort whatsoever. Recoil from them. Be horrified
by them. Be horrified when you say them. And don't forget the word of
God says that all men are liars. All we have to do is squeeze
someone hard enough in the right place and they'll tell lies.
Please don't think that we're immune. Our flesh rebels against
God continually. We need the Spirit of God to
teach us. Flesh just gives birth to more
flesh. It's the Spirit that gives life.
I fear not just being a liar, but I fear being deceived. The
reason I fear being deceived in religion is because I was
deceived in religion. And I have seen what's happened
to people who have been deceived in religion. And we have now,
in the history of this fellowship, ten long years of witnessing
what happens to people who are deceived. sends people a strong delusion. If God sends people a strong
delusion as 2 Thessalonians 2 and Isaiah 66 and other verses say,
if God sends people a strong delusion, I reckon they're deluded. I reckon they're deluded so much
that they believe that what they are doing is righteous and godly,
and they are God's servants. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ promised his disciples. They'll come, these Pharisees,
these religious people, and they'll put you to death, and in doing
so, they will think that they are doing God's service. Throughout the Scriptures, God
sends a strong delusion. He does it in justice and in
truthfulness and in judgment upon people. In 2 Thessalonians,
it's because they refused. They refused the love of the
truth. We've met and seen so, so many
people who express some acknowledgement of the truth and you meet people
and say, well, I agree with you. I agree wholeheartedly with you.
I agree with what you're saying. I agree that you preach the gospel,
but I'm going off to worship in some
other place where the Lord Jesus Christ is blasphemed and denied. It used to shock me where people
would go when they leave the gospel. I hope I remain shockable,
but I'm not as shockable as I used to be. because God sends them
a powerful delusion that they'll believe the lie. That's why it
goes on in 2 Thessalonians, we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you brethren, beloved Lord, because God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of
the spirit and belief of the truth. I'm fearful of lies. I'm fearful
of being deceived. I'm fearful of being a deceiver.
I'm fearful of denying the gospel. I'm fearful of denying the gospel
by compromise. That's exactly what people want
us to do all the time. They want us to do, as they said
to Nehemiah, you just come down from the wall, come down and
meet us on this plane of compromise, a plane of oh no. And we can
join hands together. We can join hands together. To compromise the Gospel is to
deny it altogether. To compromise the Gospel is to
show that you have no love for it whatsoever. to compromise
the gospel by sin of all sorts. The worst sins are the hidden
ones that take our hearts away from Him and allow us to look
pretty on the outside. The sin I'm fearful of the sin of harming
the Lord's people in any way." He says, to comfort my people,
comfort my people. The reason he calls on them to
be comforted is because they've been pricked in the heart and
they've been wounded. And they live in this world with
those two natures, with Adam's flesh, constantly in unbelief
and constantly in opposition and rebellion against God. And
they live with the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ has finished
the work. And the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. I'm fearful. I'm fearful of those
who manipulate the Word, and I'm fearful that I, as I've been
accused, are someone who manipulates the Word of God to justify some
particular position, to justify some theological position. It is, it is possible, because
we see it all around us, it is possible to take this Word of
God and to prove almost anything you like from it. You can deny
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ from the scriptures if you want
to use it that way. You can deny the existence of God if you want
to from the scriptures. You can take these scriptures.
God has so written the scriptures that deceitful people can manipulate
them to their destruction and at the same time believe they
are doing God's service. I pray that you would pray that
God would protect you, that God would create this fear. You see, what you fear reflects
what you are most exercised by, what you most value, what you
most esteem, what you count important. People fear death, some people
fear death, because they value life. People fear, God's people
fear denying the Lord because they have met Him and they've
seen His glory and they've experienced His grace and they've seen that
precious blood sprinkled upon them and they can't bear to have
it trampled like mud in the streets. You fear harming people, His
people, because they're precious to Him. They're blood-bought
children. I fear becoming cold and insensitive. There's so much in our flesh
that just draws us away from that warm love of the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? The Laodiceans were neither hot
nor cold. They were lukewarm. To be lukewarm
is to be comfortable. To be comfortable. And God says
that he's going to vomit them out of his mouth. I don't want
to be cold and insensitive, because I want his presence. I want him. That's what we're saying in that
hymn, isn't it? I fear encouraging people in
any works, because we value His grace so much. I fear anything
that would attribute anything to any personal righteousness,
because our righteousness is His, and it's the only righteousness
that is acceptable, the righteousness of God. I fear free will works
religion because we believe in His will. God's will is done. I fear putting people back under
the law. because of the curse of the Galatians. Cursing is anyone who brings
any other gospel, who brings a gospel that has something to
do with the works of the Lord Jesus and esteems them and then
tells people that you must do your little bit. You must do
your part to make all this work. Like all these fears, isn't it?
Fear, natural fear, causes people to flee from cliffs and spiders.
Sinful fear causes people to flee from God. And this fear
causes a fleeing to Him, to the one place of safety, the one
refuge, the one covet, the one high tower, that one cleft in
a rock, to flee to God. And if you were in that congregation
when Ananias came in and was put to death by the hand of God,
where do you go? Where do you go? You can't run
back to your works, that's what Ananias had plenty of. Go to God. That's why he exercises
this godly fear. If you read on in Acts chapter
2, those people were in fellowship, weren't they? The fear that came
upon them from God was a fear that drew them together. It drew
them away from this world. It drew them away from all the
religion of this world and it was big and attractive and it
drew them to God. See, man's religion leads men
to fear their righteousness being taken away from them. The most
precious possession they have is their own self-righteousness.
And you touch it. You find out how precious it
is when you take it away from them and tell them that according
to the Word of God they have no righteousness and what they
think is righteousness is an abomination to God and he despises
it and calls it filthy rags. Jesus Christ God doesn't want to see it anymore. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly,
perfectly sufficient to please God, and perfectly, perfectly
sufficient for all that man ever needs. See, man-made religion
is always seeking approval of others. When we were involved
in it, when I was involved in it, that was what people were
doing all the time. They were wanting to encourage
others in outward acts of righteousness so that they could actually have
their works of righteousness esteemed. And we spent a lot
of time doing it and being deceived to think that that was actually
the righteousness that God approved of. It was just man's righteousness. God's children wait. God's children
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they wait, they wait for
the Master to do His work, and they wait for Him to proclaim,
well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your Father's
glory. I don't have time to look there
now in any detail. We go to Matthew 23 when the
Lord Jesus is separating the sheep from the goats, and He
talks about their acts. And what do the sheep say? When
did I ever do any of those things? When did I feed anyone? When
did I do this? When did I? God's children look to the works
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which is why, not only is the
fear the fear growin' in the lives of God's people, and the
church is edified and multiplied in that fear. And the wonder
of the gospel, isn't it, is that again and again, the words, fear
not, come from the lips of one person. So the only place where
God's children find peace and their fears put away are when
the Lord speaks to them. He speaks to them in his word.
He says, fear not, fear not, fear not, nor be dismayed. He says to those, to the Israelites
going out to battle, he says to you in 2 Chronicles 20, he
said, you shall not need to fight this battle. Set yourself, stand
firm, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. of the Lord with you. That's
where our peace is. Fear not because he's with you. Our Judah and Jerusalem, fear
not nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them
for the Lord will be with you. That perfect love that casts
out fear is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with them.
He takes his people, he takes his disciples again and again
in the scriptures and his church in Acts, he takes them into places
of fear. and He does it deliberately to
reveal Himself in His glory. You think of the Lord Jesus taking
those people across that lake of Galilee. Again and again He
goes across there. He could have taken them across
there in a heartbeat, on a nice balmy evening, and yet He sends
a storm that they might see His power and His faithfulness. He sends them across there on
another night. And then he comes to them walking on the sea, looking
to them like a ghost, and they're terrified of what they're seeing.
And what does he say? He talks with them and he says,
be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. In fact, the words
it is I are those great words of the name of our God, I am. Don't be afraid, I am is with
you, and I am comes, and I am speaks, and I am is with you. Then there is that fear is dispelled,
all of what was fear now turns into peace. Say to them that
are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will
come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come
and save you. Again and again, he just says,
fear not, I'm with you. Fear not, I have redeemed you.
Fear not, I am with you. You can read it in Isaiah 41
and 43 and 44. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. whom I have chosen. Fear not,
you shall not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, thou shalt
not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
anymore. See, it's the comfort of the
Holy Spirit that the church was growing in. They had a reverential
awe of God. They had a genuine fear of God.
But coupled with it is the comfort of the Holy Spirit. He is that
comforter, isn't he? He's that one that comes alongside. I love what that word paraclete
means. It says, one who pleads another's
cause. Right now, in heaven, he's pleading
the cause of all of the Lord Jesus' blood-bought bride. He
pleads another cause. He is the counsel for the defense.
He's an advocate. He comes and brings this comfort,
and this is the comfort that the church is growing in. They
grew in the fear of God, the reverential awe of God, that
God had the power to do with all flesh as he chose. He had
the power to save a reprobate sinner like Paul. He had the
power to damn the religious community in Jerusalem. He had the power
to send the Gospel to this particular Gentile group, and he had the
power not to send the Gospel to another group. They were,
and God's children should be, in awe of the fact that God saves
And God determines who he saves and how he saves and when he
saves. And we are in his hands. We do not reign, he reigns. But the comfort of the Holy Spirit,
the comfort of the Holy Spirit is to take the things of the
Lord Jesus Christ and reveal them to you. In John 14, he says,
oh, he'll give you another comforter that he might abide. I love that
word abide. That means you'll come and stay
and you'll come and stay and remain. He'll abide with you
forever. He shall teach you, John 14,
26, he'll teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you. John 15, 26, he's a
company because he shall testify of me. He'll come and reveal
the Lord Jesus Christ to us. He's sent to us. And right now,
this comforter, this comforter who wrote this word of promise
and writes it on our hearts and seals it to our memories, he's
right now, according to Romans 8, 26, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. I don't know about you, but I'm
full of infirmities. All believers are full of infirmities,
aren't they? He helps our infirmities. Thank God for the infirmities.
and not the strengths. For we know not what we should
pray as we ought. I'm so pleased that was written
in the scriptures. I'm so pleased that God wrote that. I don't
know about you, praying is a trial, and praying is a pleasure, and
I'm not quite sure when I'm ever doing it, so I don't want to
ever talk about it very much. But we don't know how we should
pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself make intercession for
us with groaning which cannot be uttered. And he that searches
the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints on behalf of the saints right
now according to the will of God. I don't know what to pray. Sometimes I don't know how to
pray. But he does, and he does it all according to the will
of God. He makes intercession according to the will of God.
It's the comfort of the Holy Spirit. You want to read on in
Romans 8, and you'll find that there is just the most remarkable
comfort of those amazing promises. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. The Church grew
and was multiplied, growing in the fear of the Lord, walking
in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The Word of God is living and
active in Acts 12.24, but the Word of the Law of God grew and
multiplied. Let's try.