Good evening. You would open your Bibles to
2 Chronicles, Chapter 20. 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20. There is a three-word phrase
that I want to preach about this evening. These three words are
repeated over and over throughout the Scriptures. Our brother read
it in Mark 5, where it says, As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be
not afraid. In 2 Chronicles 20 verse 15 says, And he said, Hearken
ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat,
thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid. Be not afraid. Who is this phrase being told
to? Who is being told to not be afraid? Well, in this story, in 2 Chronicles
20, which we'll read a couple of verses in a moment, this is
the king being told through the priest to the people of Israel. This is being told to the children
of Israel. In another story we're going
to look at, it is the prophet speaking to a servant. We have
a king in another story telling his people. All of these are
examples of the Lord Jesus Christ saying this phrase, be not afraid,
to his chosen people. Those are the people who can
be not afraid. Those are the only people who
can listen and take to heart, be not afraid. Why does our Lord
say this to his people? Why does he repeat over and over
throughout the scriptures to his people, be not afraid? He says that because we're always
afraid. We are afraid of everything.
There's an old term I was talking to someone about earlier today,
We're scaredy cats. Anytime anything happens that
we're not expecting or out of the norm, we just jump. What
was that? We're so scared of everything. We're scared of everything. Now,
everyone is afraid. There might be some people who
like to brag and say, I'm not scared of anything. It's a very
popular thing to do among young boys, for sure. It's this thing,
I'm not afraid of anything. Well, anybody who wants to say
they're not afraid of anything is extremely afraid of you finding
out that they are afraid. This is especially true that
we're afraid when referring to the child of God. There are two
very specific reasons to why the child of God is always afraid. The first is because we've been
given a glimpse of who we are. I feel like I say these two things
every time I preach. We're scared because the Lord
has shown us our sin. And once you see who you are, Earthly speaking, it's extremely
scary. I'm not in control of anything
in my life. The moment I feel like I've got
something figured out, it falls apart. It just blows up in my
face something. Oh, it's just crazy how that
works. But spiritually speaking, when I find out that I'm a sinner,
and I see that in my sin, what's coming to me is death, I've got
no hope. That is scary. You want to talk
about fear. Find out that what's coming for
you is death. Secondly, God shows us who he
is. We see his holiness. We see who
he is. And that's even more scary. There
are all kinds of examples in the scripture of someone seeing
God. And man, we just, oh, it just
smites you. We are so scared. And in those
two things, the child of God is always afraid, and that's
who we are. And I think the older we get,
and the more we realize, and the more we see ourselves, and
the more we see of Him, we just get more scared. There are a
million things that I'm afraid of, a million situations I don't
want to be in. I am so scared of so many things.
But this phrase, be not afraid, when I see that, I just want
one reason to be not afraid. Now, humanly speaking, that math
doesn't really add up, does it? A million reasons to be scared
and just needing one reason to be not afraid? But as we'll see
here, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one reason why someone can
be not afraid. And He is greater than everything
else combined. All the things that we're afraid
of, no matter how long we sat here and listed things we're
scared of, earthly speaking, spiritual, all of them, all of
them are in His hands. All of them are under His control.
Be not afraid. So how can we be not afraid?
We understand we are afraid. We understand that he tells his
children, be not afraid. So one more thing before we look
at this story. I remember always hearing the
phrase as a child, fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. I remember sitting
in church and having men stand up here and look what I felt
was right into my eyes and saying, you better fear the Lord. And
I mean screaming it at me. And I remember sitting there
and being, I'm scared of you. I don't know how to fear the
Lord, but I'm scared of you. So how can we fear the Lord,
but then we're told be not afraid. Those things seem in contradiction
of each other. Well, nothing in the Scripture
is in contradiction of each other. The problem is that we don't
understand things, so we misinterpret them or we don't understand it.
But let me, just in a couple seconds here, let me see if I
can explain how we can fear the Lord and how we can be not afraid. We are to not be afraid of anything
except the Lord. We are to fear the Lord and not
fear anything else because of the Lord. It says in the scriptures,
it says, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, serve him, and
shalt swear by his name." It says, listen to this in Jeremiah,
I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them to do them good. But I, the Lord Jesus Christ,
I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from
me. He will make his children fear
him. And that is what keeps us. He
will make us fear Him. And the fear of the Lord is a
wonderful thing. Proverbs says so many things about the fear
of the Lord. It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. It says the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.
The fear of the Lord prolongs days. The fear of the Lord gives
strong confidence. So many things. The fear of the
Lord is the key to so many things. We are to be not afraid of anything
else because of the Lord. We fear nothing else because
of Him. So, look here at 2 Chronicles
20. Look at verse 12. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before
the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
They stood before the Lord. Everyone did. It said, We have
no might against this great company. An army had come against Israel.
And they went to the Lord and beseeched him, saying, We can't
do anything about this. And verse 14 says, Then upon
Jehazel, Jehazel is a Levite of the sons of Asaph. And then
the bottom of that verse, it says, To him came the Spirit
of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. They prayed to
the Lord and said, Help us. And this man, this of the tribe
of Levi, spoke up. And he said, Hearken ye, verse
15, all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, And thou King Jehoshaphat,
thus saith the Lord unto you. The Lord says to you, Be not
afraid. Be not afraid nor dismayed by
reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours,
but God's. How can we be not afraid? Because
the battle is not yours. The battle is God's. Do you think
that was good news to those people? They were besieged by an army
they knew they could not defeat. They knew they had no hope. And
the Lord told them, be not afraid. I'm the one who fought the fight. I'm the one who's going to defend
you. I'm the one who will do it. We do not have to be afraid
because the Lord Jesus Christ has done the work. He has won
the battle, the battle that we couldn't fight, the battle we
didn't even know we needed to fight. He fought the battle and
he was victorious. He did it. Verse 16 here, Tomorrow
go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. He tells them, he starts the
whole thing. The first thing he says is, be not afraid. And at the end, he tells them,
fear not, do not be dismayed. Tomorrow, the Lord will be with
you. The Lord is with us from the
beginning to the end. It's his fight. He's already
won. We don't have to do anything. to think that these people weren't
just told that, I'm going to win the fight. I will fight.
You don't have to. But he also told them, come.
Look and see that I will win the fight. See who has won the
fight. We don't have to assume anything.
We don't have to guess what happened. We've been told what happened.
We've been told that the Lord Jesus Christ paid our debt and
won the victory over sin. He bore our sin. He saved us. And because of this, we don't
have to be afraid. We do not have to be afraid.
Turn with me to Second Chronicles 32. We don't have to be afraid because
the battle is His. We don't have to fight. And in
2 Chronicles 32, look at verse 6. This is Hezekiah has done this. They've been... Another situation,
the king of Assyria has come to them and this king of Assyria
has been just pillaging everything. He's been defeating people everywhere
and Israel just next in line to be defeated. And Hezekiah
the king in verse 6 says, "...and he set captains of war over the
people and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate
of the city and spake comfortably to them saying..." Marginet says
he spoke to their heart. He spoke emotionally with them.
Verse 7, he said, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor
dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that
is with him. For there be more with us than
with him. We don't have to be afraid because
there's more with us than are with them. Now this is not something
that should make us start counting things. We don't have to try
to figure out how many are on each side. What it means that
there's more with us, or there's more with the Lord Jesus Christ
side, is that He's on that side. In these stories, the first few
that we're going to go through, all of them are very clear. There's
a line in the sand and there's a group on this side and a group
on this side. He tells one of those two groups,
be not afraid. He doesn't say anything to the
other group. The only people who don't have to be afraid are
the people that the Lord is on their side. The battle is won
based off what the Lord does, what the Lord chooses. It's His
battle. He's the victor. There's no winner
and loser. It's just the Lord Jesus Christ
is the victor. He is the one who always wins. Look at verse 8. With him is
an arm of flesh. So with that army, the king of
Assyria, he has the arm of flesh. But with us is the Lord our God
to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told them, be not
afraid. And if we can take that to heart,
what do we do? And the people rested themselves. They rested because they were
told to be not afraid. This battle had not been fought
yet. These people were in a walled city with an army outside the
wall that had not been defeated yet. This was an undefeated army
that was greater than theirs. They were in trouble. Just 30
seconds ago, they all thought they were going to die. And through
these words, it is three verses, a hundred words or so, they go
from knowing that they were going to die at the hands of this army
to resting. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
told them, be not afraid. That's all we need. If He's on
our side, we have nothing to fear. Turn to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 6. This is a familiar story that
goes along with what Hezekiah was saying. Look in 2 Kings 6.
Look at verse 13. This is such a great story and
illustration. Elisha, the prophet, was telling
the king of Israel everywhere that their enemy king, where
they were going. The king of Syria, in this situation,
was trying to get the army of Israel. And so they had all these
plots, and we're going to sneak and do this. And every time he
did something, Elisha told the king of Israel, don't go there,
because that's where they are. And finally, that king thought
to himself, who is my traitor? Someone is telling them where
we're going. And one of his servants said, Verse 12, look at verse 12 of
chapter 6. And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king,
but Elisha the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of
Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. He says, Elisha,
the prophet of the true and living God, he knows what you whisper.
He knows what you're thinking in your bedroom. It's him. So
what happens, verse 13? And the king said, Go and spy
where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told
him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither
horses and chariots and a great host. And they came by night
and compassed the city about. And when the servant of Elisha
was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host compassed the
city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him,
Alas, my master, how shall we do it? They sent an army to get
Elisha, I mean an army to get one man, a man who didn't fight.
And the servant went out, and I can't imagine the moment, this
servant of the prophet walked outside as sun's breaking and
looks up and sees an army all around him. They don't, they
don't, you talk about helpless. It's like us. We have no defense.
We didn't even know that we were being attacked in this moment.
He said, What in the world are we going to do? How shall we
do it? In verse 16, Elisha said, Fear not, for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them. Same thing that Hezekiah
just said. But verse 17 then says, And Elisha
prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may
see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. This young man was scared for
the army of men. He saw the army of men and knew
he could not fight against them. What he could not see until it
was revealed to him through the spirit that the army of God is
ever present, that the Lord was there for them, that nothing
can happen to the child of God apart from him being there. The
Lord is in control. He protects us. He keeps us.
In this situation, he's protecting them in an earthly manner. He's protecting them from this
army. But the spiritual illustration is so true. We and our sin and
our spirit is so weak and we can't defend ourselves, but He
is our protection. He is the one who protects us.
Because He has chosen us, because He has elected us, For ever and
ever since before the foundation of the earth, we've been protected.
Just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
One day we'll know. One day we'll see that He was
ever present with us. Every single moment, He was there
and gave us the reasons and told us, be not afraid. I'm here. Okay, turn over with me to Joshua
chapter 11. Joshua chapter 11. When the Lord tells us to be
not afraid, it's important we realize that we're going to be
afraid unless He makes us not afraid. That's who we are. In
the same way that the fear of the Lord is not something that
we have ourselves. The fear of the Lord is not naturally
in the heart of man, but it's by the grace of God. It's true
sight of sin and dependence upon the Lord. The fear of the Lord
manifests itself in reverent affection for Him, for the Lord.
in true worship of Him. It makes us to cleave to Him
and pray to God that He keeps us from departing or leaving
Him. We ask Him, make us to fear You and not to fear man. Not
to fear the things that we spend so much time thinking about.
Look here in Joshua 11 verse 1. And it came to pass when Jabin
king of Hazor had heard those things that he sent to Jobab
king of Madon and to the king of Shimron and to the king of
Akshaph, and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains,
and of the plain south of Chenaroth, and in the valley and in the
borders of Dor on the west, and to the Canaanite on the east
and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon
in the land of Mizpah." Is there anyone that was not included
in this? They said, someone that a kingdom
to the north, a kingdom to the south, a kingdom to the west,
and a kingdom to the east, and a kingdom in the valley, and
a kingdom on the mountain, and just get everybody Everybody
came together, verse 4, and they went out, they and all their
hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon
the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.
And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched
together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. Everyone,
and I mean everyone, is going to fight against Israel. Everyone
that is not chosen, is not spiritually Israel, will fight against Israel. That's who we are. That's by
nature what we do. That's what we did before he
revealed himself to us. All our thoughts and all our
actions say, I will not have this God to reign over me. I
will not have someone tell me what to do. I will not have someone
tell me that they're in control, that I'm not in control. I have
no one tell me that I'm a sinner. You're not going to tell me I'm
worse than all these people. That's who we are. We fight against
the glory of God. We want the glory. All of these
people, all the kingdoms came together against Israel. Verse
6, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them. What do we not need to worry
about? What do we not need to be afraid of? Them. All of them. Whoever they are. Don't be afraid
of them. If we have Christ, we need not
fear anyone, anything. He said, Be not afraid because
of them, for tomorrow, about this time, will I deliver them
up all slain before Israel. Thou shalt huff their horses
and burn their chariots with fire. Verse 7, So Joshua came,
and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters
of Merom, suddenly, and they fell upon them. Joshua and the
army of Israel was no match for these armies. This is, I don't
even remember how many there were, but all of their neighbors,
all of the other tribes, all of the other nations, all of
them came against them. But the Lord said, Be not afraid
because of them, I will deliver you. So Joshua and the people
of Israel stood up and went to fight. And verse 8 said, And
the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote
them and chased them unto Great Zion, and unto Misri-foth-mayim,
and unto the valley of Mishpah eastward, and they smote them
until they left them none remaining. Joshua did unto them as the Lord
bade him. He huffed their horses and burnt
their chariots with fire." It says, they left them none remaining. Everyone who opposes the Lord
will have the same end. Everyone that is not in the Lord
will be left with nothing. It says, they left them none
remaining. They smoke them all. All men
will die in their sins unless the Lord Jesus Christ has died
for your sins. Unless you're in him, that's
our end. We will be smoked. If we dare
oppose the living God, we will come to the same end. And let's
look at Mark chapter 5. This is our last one, the one
our brother read. Mark chapter 5. There are countless stories in
the Old Testament where the Lord said, be not afraid, said fear
not, all these things. But let's look at one story where
the Lord himself said this. Look with me in verse 21 of Mark
chapter 5. And when Jesus was passed over
again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto
him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold, there cometh
one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw
him, he fell at his feet. And he besought him greatly,
saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray
thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed,
and she shall live. And Jesus went with him, and
much people followed him and thronged him." Look over verse
35. While he yet spake, there came
from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy
daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further?" This moment, as a father, has just lost a child. This father, in order to come
to the Lord, I'm sure had realized that he himself could not save
her. He had probably come to the realization
there was no one else who could save her. And he thought there
is one who can save her. And he went to the Lord. He did
the right thing and approached the Lord, came to the Lord and
said, please save my daughter, save her. And he was just told
probably the moment of his greatest fear coming to reality, that
his child was dead. And in that moment, Verse 36,
as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto
the ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only believe. The very moment of fear, the
moment of heartache, our Lord is ever present. This man did
not have to wait even a second. It says, as soon as Jesus heard
the word, now the Lord knew what was being said and what was going
to be said. And the moment that that man was told his daughter
had died, he told her, or he told him, be not afraid. Just believe, just believe. This is the message to us. Be
not afraid, just believe. I'm not sure Jay Iris understood
what was happening or what was going to happen. When we go through
this life, we are afraid, as I've said in so many situations.
Fear comes from the unknown. If you, when I watch movies with
my children that I've already seen, especially movies that
have a happy ending, and I know what's coming, I enjoy the movie. I know the ending. I know what's
going to happen. And I have to lean over because
one of my children will squeeze tight and be like, I'm scared.
I don't know what's going to happen. And I lean into them and I say,
it's going to be okay. It's going to be alright because
I know what's going to happen. They're scared because they don't
know what's going to happen. We are scared because we don't
know what's going to happen in everything. But if we look at
this spiritually, I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for
my sins. I believe that He saved me. But
in my flesh and in my sin, I don't know what's going to happen. I believe, but help my unbelief.
I don't know. Because I do know that if He
doesn't save me, He's right to not save me. I don't deserve
to be saved. I don't expect to be saved in
the sense that I should be. Only by His grace will He save
me. And that's a main reason why
I'm so scared. Jairus didn't know what was going
to happen, but the Lord told him, be not afraid because I'm
in control. He said, believe on me. Jairus didn't have anything else
to believe because he didn't know what was going to happen.
He didn't have anything else to hang on to. He no longer had
her life to hang on to. He had no hope. He needed to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we have to hang on
to. Every fear we have, we must not be afraid only because we
have Him. We hold to Him, grasp to Him,
and all these things in life that are doubts. Earthly speaking
or spiritually speaking, every single thing that gives us fear,
the only way to be not afraid is to hold on to Him. If we don't
look to Him, we will be scared to death. How often do we find
ourselves in trials, tribulations, and we just fret and worry, and
then all of a sudden, He turns our eyes and says, look upon
me. I'll take care of it. He said to him, be not afraid,
only believe. Verse 37, And he suffered no
man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John, the brother
of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue,
and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly."
There was great sadness, great sadness. And when he was come
in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel
is not dead, but sleepeth. and they laughed him to scorn.
But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and
the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and
entered in where the damsel was lying." He kicked everyone else
out. Everyone who didn't believe had
to go out. The only ones who were present
at this point were those who believed. Verse 41, He took the
damsel by the hand and said unto her, Talitha cumi, which is being
interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway
the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of twelve
years, and they were astonished with a great astonishment. They were amazed. They believed,
but they didn't know what was going to happen. Believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ will give us life. He's our life. Apart from our belief on Him,
we will not be saved. Now, we will not believe unless
He gives us belief. Unless He gives us faith, we
will not do it. What we must not be afraid, only believe.
One more time, in verse 36, as soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he said unto the ruler of the synagogue, be
not afraid, only believe. We must not fear of anything,
but we fear the Lord Jesus Christ, because our lives are in his
hands. Lord, we pray, make us to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that will relieve our fear.