Let's be turning to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Our text is verse 7. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. And so I want to speak to you this morning about the spirit that the Lord gives his people for the ministration of the gospel, to minister the gospel to God's people. So the spirit of fear. The spirit of fear is a carnal, a fleshly response that one might have who preaches the gospel to the temper of men. Those men that are angry or those men that don't want to hear these things about Christ. They don't want to hear the grace of God. And so the carnal response is anger and wrath against the truth because they oppose the gospel of Christ and they oppose themselves, the scripture says, against the counsel of God. They reject the counsel of God against themselves. They oppose the truth of God to their own hurt and destruction. And Paul is saying to us who preach the gospel and minister the gospel, he's saying don't draw back. Don't be timid, don't back down when they come against the truth of God. That is the natural response of man. And that's the sense of the word here of fear and how it's used here. Don't be timid in the face of persecution. Don't back down in the face of persecution. We need not fear what man can do to us or whether he'll be offended at the truth of the gospel. We don't need to worry about that. We're not to change the message to suit men. And the reason why is because this gospel This gospel that we preach is the means by which God saves his people. It is the means of salvation for the people of God. This gospel speaks to and describes the hope that the believer has that God will receive him. that God will forgive him of his sins and give him life. This is describing, this is making known what God has done to give life and salvation to his people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there is another word for fear in the New Testament, and that word for fear signifies terror and dread. It signifies terror and dread. And it is that terror used in the hands of man according to the will of man that is opposed by the gospel of Christ. There's not a union of the two. There's not an agreement of the two. The gospel opposes the works of man. The gospel opposes what man is trying to do with fleshly man-made religion to save himself and to work righteousness in people by the works of the flesh. And so we oppose that. We're not to fear men who would terrorize you with the law and create and form a fear in your hearts and a dread in you by the use of the law or by the traditions and customs of men. We're not to submit to that. and to have agreement with that. And they used the law because they're trying to accomplish what only God can do by his power. And that's not what we're to do. That kind of fear was something that was struck in the people in the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. That kind of fear was something that struck the hearts of the people when the Lord gave the law at Mount Sinai. But that kind of fear, as we know, does not effect a righteousness in the heart of man. It doesn't circumcise the heart of man, it can only circumcise the flesh. It doesn't give life to man, it only gives death. We're not to use the law to work of righteousness and life and salvation in other people, using the law to terrorize you, to create fear in you. That's not what the Lord has sent us to do. This is not the way to produce life in the gospel. is looking to the law and uses the law as a tool to force compliance, to force obedience in man by fear. But fear does not give life. It doesn't give a new heart. It does not produce salvation. In fact, the Apostle John tells us there is no fear in love. but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. And so we're not to use the law in that way, as a fear tactic. We're not to use the law to force obedience in the hearts of man, because it's not going to happen. And I want to show you this in Hebrews. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Again, the Lord has given us a spirit to minister the gospel to men. He's given the gospel to the church, not the law to work obedience in the hearts of his people. So in Hebrews 12 down in verse 18 through verse 25 is what we're going to be looking at with some comment. Paul says, For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest. He's talking about Mount Sinai where the law was given, where Moses and the people came and God gave the law. Do not come to that mount. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touched the mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart right that's the the fear that was given to them right given given them wrought in them at the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and But we know that all but two souls perished in the way. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who heard that that entered the inheritance. Even Moses didn't enter the inheritance, because the law does not bring us into the inheritance of God. Joshua, a picture of Christ, is the one who led the people into the promised land. And so all but two souls perished in the way, not having received the promises, but the unbelievers died under the curse, died in unbelief, died without faith. They were afraid at what they saw. It says down in verse 21, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. This is not, and the reason why I'm here is that this is not the way of the gospel dispensation. This is not the way that God gives life in the gospel. Believers are not to turn to the law with threatenings and berating of sinners to work obedience in them. It's not going to work. It didn't work in them in Israel. It doesn't work in us today. It's not gonna work. It may produce an outward form of obedience, but inwardly, all it's doing is provoking the flesh. It's just provoking the flesh. If salvation and obedience to the faith is what you seek, this type of fear is not necessary. In fact, it's not the gospel. It's not what the Lord does for us in the gospel. It's counterproductive to the gospel. Because it's flesh, it's not the spirit. Down in Hebrews 12, 22, but ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Not that political state of Jerusalem, which is, as Paul said, in bondage. As Hagar, in bondage with her children, that's not it. heavenly Jerusalem, which is free, which is above, which is born again by the gospel, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. And we know Abel's blood demanded justice. I've been slain unjustly. Get that man. Put that man to death. He avenged me. That's what Abel's blood cried. But the blood of Christ, rather than crying for vengeance, The blood of Christ has satisfied justice, has wrought peace for us with God. Between God and men. And the warning of coming judgment and punishment is not for them that believe Christ, but for them that refuse him and believe not the gospel. Verse 25, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh, For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. And so all this is to say that we do not operate under the fear of the curses of the law. That's not what the Lord has given us a spirit to do, to effect righteousness in men. Christ has delivered us from that kingdom. He took us in Adam. We're born in the kingdom of darkness. We're born of corrupt seed. The natural man is under the law. The law was not made for the righteous, but for sinners. And so Christ has delivered us from that body of sin and death and that inheritance in Adam. which is an inheritance of eternal damnation, because we are not righteous in and of ourselves, and has translated us out of that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, of Jesus Christ. That's what he's done for us. And so God hath not given us, back in 2 Timothy 1.7, our text, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, or timidity, that when we are opposed by carnal man, using carnal tactics of the law, trying to work obedience, and coming against the truth of the gospel. That's not what God is doing. That's not how he saves. He does not save by the law and the works of the law and by the flesh. And men would force you into a voluntary humility by bringing the law to you and instructing you in the law and teaching you by the law. They're just working a voluntary humility, but it has nothing to do in changing the heart. It cannot circumcise the heart. The flesh, yes, but not the heart. doesn't do anything for any good for us so we are called to stand and deliver the gospel of God revealed in Jesus Christ for this is how the truth of God is revealed it's manifested it's made known in them who are called of God those who are redeemed by the blood of Christ it's by a spirit of power and and of love and of a sound mind," Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.7, by a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. So I want to look at these three descriptions of the spirit given to us to minister the gospel. And I want to talk to you about these three things. First, a spirit of power. When you preach the gospel, carnal man is going to charge you with sin. He's going to charge you with being an antinomy. He's going to charge you with being against God and godliness and righteousness. He's going to charge you with sin for preaching Christ crucified and declaring the grace of God for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this is the very means that God has given to us to reveal them that are redeemed by the blood of Christ. The Gospel is the very means that God has given to the Church to reveal, by which He reveals them that are His, purchased with His blood. Look over at Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. Paul says there, Verse 16, Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why would Paul even talk like that? Well, because the Jews and his countrymen were coming against him, saying, you're doing wickedly in preaching the gospel. You're opposing Moses. And you should stop this. And he's saying, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This is the very salvation of God. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. We were looking at this verse a couple weeks ago and saw that word power is the Greek word dunamis. And I only bring that up to say that's where we get our word dynamite from. It is that explosive power. It's able to move mountains, right? Men use dynamite to blow off the face of rocks. It moves mountains. It brings them low. It does that. Well, this is the power of God, which raised Christ from the dead, overcame the enemies, raised Christ from the dead, who conquered the grave, who put away sin. And this is the same power, the same resurrection power, of you and I that are born dead in trespasses and sins, where we are given a resurrection, a spiritual birth from spiritual death to spiritual life. It's that same power that does it, and it's the same power that's going to raise us up out of the graves when Christ comes again. It's that same resurrection power. But I want you to notice that Paul, in verse 16, calls the gospel of Christ the power of God unto salvation. And it's not everyone that hears the gospel preached. Not everyone who hears it, that sits here and hears it with the natural ear that believes the gospel, but those who effectually hear it by that power of God taking the things of Christ and showing them to you, giving them to you, revealing them to you by faith. Only God can do that. I cannot work that in you. All I'm doing is being obedient to the Word of God that says preach this Word, preach this Word, preach the Gospel, declare Christ and Him crucified because that is what God is pleased to use to give life, to reveal His power of resurrecting grace and giving you life and delivering you from the kingdom of darkness. And so it's made effectual in those that are described as everyone that believeth. That's the end result. How do I know who are gods? Those that believe, those that trust Christ. That's how God makes it known, from faith to faith. And what that means is we preach faith. He's talking about the gospel, which is the hearing of faith, how that God saves us not by our works, but by his son, Jesus Christ. And all that believe him are delivered from all things from which he could not be delivered by the law of Moses. But Christ has done it. He's accomplished it. That's how you are saved. And so we understand, made to know, the grace of God in the hearing of faith. And God reveals faith in your hearts to believe that. To trust, that's how God saves. That's what he does for his people. He saves us by the Lord Jesus Christ. That one who is chosen of God hears that word effectually and believes Christ and rejoices in him and puts aside those dead works that cannot save and comes to the Lord in faith. He manifests faith in the hearing of faith, that is the preaching of the gospel. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. And God makes that known in his people. So this is how God ministers the salvation of Christ to his people. Jesus Christ accomplished salvation on the cross for his people who are ruined in the fall. Corrupted and ruined and sinners in Adam. And we could not save ourselves and Christ is the Redeemer that was promised in the garden. He is the seed of woman that should come. and redeem his people by his blood, so that in the day of grace we are regenerated by that same power. We are regenerated by the Spirit of God, giving life from the dead, which we could not affect or do in ourselves. Christ did it. And that regeneration speaks to the fact that we are generated the first time by the seed of our fathers, that corrupt seed of Adam. That's why we come forth sinners. And we are regenerated, born again, by the life and power of God in the giving of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel made effectual to our hearts. with the hearing ear of faith. He does that. That's his work, his power. And so I say all this so that you see that we don't need to revert to the law and striking fear in man with the law and threats of punishment because it does not produce the fruit. It does not produce the fruit. Like our Lord said, When he spoke of the false prophet, by their fruits you shall know them. And what does the false prophet do? He turns you to the flesh to work obedience. That is the false prophet. We turn you to Christ and preach in Christ because only he can work fruit in you. The flesh, like he said, you don't turn to thorns and thistles to get grapes and figs. You don't turn to the flesh, which is under the curse of the law and cannot work obedience. All you're going to get is thorns and thistles, not figs and grapes. You preach Christ, and he reveals life. He reveals fruits of righteousness in his people. If you would see men saved, yourselves your neighbors, your friends, your family, people that you love and care for. If you would see them saved from eternal damnation, preach the gospel of Christ just as the apostles did. Just as the apostles did because that's where the power, the dynamite of God is witnessed. they're His, He's going to affect it. He's going to do it in the hearing of faith. And He's given us that spirit to accomplish His will and purpose in the earth, in the hearts of His people. All right? So secondly now, we can minister to sinners in that spirit of love. All right? He's given us a spirit of power and of love. and of a sound mind. So now, Ron, the spirit of love. This is how we minister to sinners. I can be patient with men. I don't have to get angry and upset and get frustrated in speaking of these things because I know it's the grace of God that is going to reveal salvation in their hearts. It's not coming down to my wisdom and my ability to teach them. I can't do it. I'm telling you right now, I cannot affect life and righteousness in you. God can. He is able, and He's the one that does it, and I can rest in that. I can come and minister in a spirit of love to sinners, knowing that it's God who saves, that it takes the miracle, the power of the Lord to do it. You know that word power is also translated miracle 10 times in the scriptures, 10 times in the New Testament. I'll give you one example from Galatians 3, 5. He therefore that ministereth to you the spirit and worketh miracles among you, right, worketh power among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, right, driving you to work obedience by the law, or does he do it by the hearing of faith? That's where the miracle of grace and life and salvation is revealed in God's people. Through the preaching of the gospel. That's the hearing of faith. Hearing of what God has done for us by his son through faith. Through faith. That's how life is ministered to you. That's how the spirit is ministered to you. The preaching of the gospel is how God ministers his spirit and works miracles of his grace and life in dead sinners, made alive by his grace and power. Is it by hammering on people with the law to perfect and work in obedience to produce faith, or is it the preaching of faith that does it? And Paul answers it. In Galatians 3, after 3, 5, he says in verse 6, even as Abraham believed God. Abraham, a faithful father, a faithful servant of God, believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. Abraham was 430 years before the law of Moses given at Mount Sinai. Moses wasn't saved by the law. Moses didn't practice the law. Moses was saved by faith. And what Paul says here is that's the children. of Abraham. Those are the children of God, those who believe. Those who believe, they are the true Jews, the true Israel of God. And he goes on to say, the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel. unto Abraham, saying, In thee, Abraham, shall all nations be blessed. That is, Abraham, without the law, shall all my children, Jew and Gentiles, be blessed. That's how they're going to be saved, by that same faith. that you have. I'm going to reveal that in all my people, Jew and Gentiles, apart from the law, without the works of the law. So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Believe God. Believe Christ. You cannot do it by the works of the law. It is by the revelation of faith in you which looks away from self and looks to Christ. and trusts the promises of God made unto us in Christ, believing his word. So if you seek the blessings of God, it's not going to come by the works and practice of the law. That's what Paul's saying. That only produces wrath in people. It produces rebellion in people. It produces fleshly things in death. Life is produced by the hearing of faith. Turning people to Christ. Just look at Acts. What did they do? They went into every city and they preached Christ. Preached Christ crucified to the people over and over and over again. And the Lord revealed his power in their hearts by turning them from dead things, false religion, idolatry, covetousness, all that sin, he turned them from that to Christ. And they walked in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's the power of God, and you must minister it in the spirit of love. The natural man who's not heard Christ, has not heard his voice, has not faith, is arguing, well, God is holy. God is holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. That is true. God is holy. Holy, holy, holy. And that is why you do not dare attempt to come before God in your obedience to the law. If you believe that God is holy, if you know that God is holy, you don't come to holy God in the works of the law. because you will die in your sins in the judgment of God because there is none righteous before the law. There's none righteous by the law. There's none made righteous by the works of the law. I don't want to meet God in judgment based on my righteousness and what I've done in the law. There is no hope in that. You don't want to meet God in judgment on the basis of our works under the law, by the basis of our religion, by the basis of our forms. I don't want to meet God by the basis of my good works. I don't want to meet him on the basis of my repentance. I don't want to meet him on my morality. I want to meet God and stand before God in the person and work and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the hope of the sinner. If you meet God who is holy, if you really believe that he is holy, don't meet God in the law. Come to him in Christ in whom he is well pleased. God tells us and shows us how holy he is. He has given us the law and given us Israel and given us the oracles and the prophets and the law and the Psalms, he's showing us his holiness to turn us from self and to drive us to Christ, that we would flee to the refuge for sinners, that God has provided to save his people from their sins. And if God be merciful to us, if God is able to love us in Christ, If God can meet us in Christ, the Ark, if God can meet us mercifully, graciously, kindly, gently, patiently, forbearing with our folly and our darkness and our ignorance of Him, if God can meet us there in Christ in love, and you and I may meet our brethren in Christ in that same spirit of love and patience and gentleness and kindness, bearing with their folly, bearing with their ignorance and gently, patiently instructing them and turning them from the flesh to see the grace and the hope that he's given to us in Christ. because it was His grace that affected that power in us. Well, that's what they need, too. So if God can be loving to us in Christ, we may be loving to our brethren in Christ. That same thing. As Paul wrote, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, All right, tenderhearted toward one another, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Don't demand a tit for tat and do everything that they did to you. Forgive them, be tender, be patient, and love them in Christ. Love them in Christ. As God forgave you in Christ, you forgive them, whether they deserve it or not. You seek to have a spirit of tenderness and forgiveness with them. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Saviour." Isn't that a sweet thought, that you can lay down your rights and what you deserve from others and just sacrifice that? and say, you know, I don't need you to do this and that for me. I just want to love you in Christ and show you the kindness of God that he's shown to me. Because I don't deserve his kindness, and yet he's kind to me. I don't deserve his mercy, and yet he's merciful to me. I don't deserve his forgiveness, but he's forgiven me in Christ, for Christ's sake. And the children of God, as dear children, want to have that same spirit toward others, according to the grace wherewith he's been gracious to us, I want to seek to show that same grace to others. Because that blesses my heart, and I pray it will bless their heart. If they're just flesh, they may not care. But if they're his, great. And even if they don't care, what is that? That's OK. The Lord is able to use it maybe another day. to bless them. So show yourselves a pattern of love toward them that, especially them that profess Christ. Especially them that profess Christ. To all, but especially them that profess Christ and show them that same spirit of gentleness and kindness and understanding and long-suffering with them. Understanding that God is the one that's going to give them a hearing ear and an understanding. God must be gracious to them in these things in the same way that God had to be gracious to us to reveal him to us. We didn't get him under hardness, we got him under his love and grace toward us. The love of Christ constraineth us. It's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. Not the whippings and beatings of God that leads you to repentance, but the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. And showing you Christ. And finally, He's given us a spirit, the spirit of a sound mind. And that signifies that he gives us a right understanding and a discernment of these matters, that we don't have to go in a certain way, the way the flesh would go in and the way man goes in and the way the world goes in. But we may go in in a spirit of love and understanding and preaching Christ, trusting that God is able to do it. And so he's given us a sound mind concerning the gospel, both in the manner of our conversation, our walk in ourselves, as he teaches us and grows us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and in the ministration of the gospel with temperance and self-control. The wrath of God doesn't work the works of God. I mean, the wrath of man doesn't work the works of God, but rather the Gospel, right? Preaching the Gospel. We may be patient and trust Him to do it. And in that sound mind, we may show faithfulness and trust in the Lord, who gives us His Word and tells us that it's by His power, by His Spirit, by His grace, we may trust Him to do it. We have a wonderful calling in Christ. We have a mighty savior, able to save his people to the uttermost. He tells us throughout his word, believe him to do it. Pray to him to do it. Trust him to do it, just as he's promised and just as he's given his spirit. They who have this spirit of power, and of love and of a sound mind may stand confident and firm in Christ." That's what he was saying to Timothy. Don't be timid, Timothy. Don't have that spirit of fear. You have a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind in these things. You stand there in the gospel preaching that. And I just want to close with two more verses back in 2 Timothy 1.8.9. I'm not going to really give much comment at all, but just close with these. 2 Timothy 1, verse 8 and 9, now. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. Right? If I turn to the law, if I turn to carnal things to try and effect obedience in you, I'm saying I'm ashamed of Christ. Christ can't do it. He's not enough. I better put my hand to it to make this work. That, Paul's saying, that's being ashamed of Christ. Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner, whom suffering for this, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God." Man isn't going to be pleased with you for preaching Christ crucified. He's going to be angry. He's going to rage against it. He's going to charge you with sin and wickedness because Because, well, God manifests them that are his, right? Either they believe it, and that grace is dividing the people. Grace is revealing those that are his, and it's revealing those that are not his. And it's revealing them in whom they have not the spirit of God, but are enemies of the cross. But you preach Christ in that spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind, because Christ, verse 9, hath saved us. and called us within holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Amen.