I'll add my welcome to Winston's.
It's good to see everybody out today, this first really chilly
morning we've had. As you can see, the title of
my message is Fighting Fear with Fear. Now, I know you've probably
heard about fighting fire with fire. You know, they set a fire
over here to kind of offset one that's going amok. But today,
our subject is going to be fear, fear from the scriptures. We
have numerous fears in this world. If you've ever pulled fear or
phobia up on your internet, if you haven't, pull it up sometime.
There must be thousands listed. I mean, and I'm sure they affect,
some of them affect all of us. I mean, fear of heights, acrophobia,
fear of close places, claustrophobia. I'm sure, I know I'm affected
by some of these, but, and oftentimes we are, fight our common fears
with knowledge. In our children, for instance,
you remember when they were afraid of the dark, what did you do? You went in the dark room with
them, took a flashlight maybe, and just showed them that there
was really nothing in there to be afraid of. Or when they were
afraid of the water, what'd you do? You got in there with them
and held them until they were comfortable. being in there by
themselves. We overcome our common fears
oftentimes with knowledge. Well, God fights fear. The fear we're born with, we'll
be speaking of two kinds of fears. In the spiritual realm, that's
what the scriptures speak of, two different kinds of fears.
First, there's that natural legal fear. This is the fear of punishment. And then there is reverential
fear. the fear that gives reverence
to God's redemptive character, how he can be just and justify
the ungodly. And that fear alone overcomes
the fear we're born with, legal fear. So God fights fear with
fear. And that's what we'll be talking
about today in our lesson. We're going to look at these
two fears in the scripture and as you can see, as you could
see, I chose two different portions of scripture because the Genesis
3, 6 through 10 speaks about our natural legal fear and Jeremiah
32, 37 through 40 speaks of the reverential fear that those taught
of God are given in regeneration. Let's talk about this first fear
first. It's the first we're all born with. It's natural to us. It's legal. It's the fear of
punishment. In other words, it's the fear
that we've done something wrong, the fear that we deserve to be
punished, and the fear that we could be or maybe will be punished. Let me illustrate it in our practical
lives. We experience this fear. For
instance, when you run a red light, or maybe one that's almost
red. You could consider it almost
red. Anyway, when you go through that light, it doesn't matter
whether anybody's in that intersection or not. You know you've broken
the law. And you know you deserve to be punished. And so there's
just a moment when you look around See if there's a policeman looking,
don't you? See if there are blue lights coming after you when
you travel on down the road. There's just that momentary fear. And this fear never completely
goes away in this life, because we're under this law as long
as we live, and we have that fear. powerful principle within
us that knows we've done wrong and know we deserve to be punished.
So there's really no overcoming this fear in this life. It'll
be with us as long as we live. Even when we haven't done anything
wrong, but we see blue lights in our rear view mirror, we stop
and say for just a second, well, did I do something wrong? I don't
think I did, but is that guy coming after me or? Just for
a moment. That's how this fear plays out
in our practical lives. Well, this fear I'm talking about,
this natural legal fear, it had a beginning. We can see it's
beginning all the way back to the garden, all the way back
to man's first wrongdoing, all the way back in the book of Genesis,
immediately after the fall of man. After rebelling against
God's decree, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to hide their
nakedness. Look at Genesis 3, verses 6 through
7. It says, and when the woman,
that's Eve, saw that the tree was good for food, and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes
of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked, and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Now,
Adam and Eve knew something here. that they hadn't known before.
They learned something right here that they hadn't known before.
They knew they were naked. In other words, they knew now
that they were exposed to something they hadn't previously been exposed
to. They were now afraid that God would inflict the punishment
on them that he'd warned them about. You know, he told them,
you can eat of any tree in this garden except the one in the
center, but in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And when they rebelled against
God, this legal fear was born. They feared God. They feared
his just punishment. They feared the death that he
had threatened. But even though they feared God,
their efforts to shield themselves from God's wrath were not enough.
They sewed fig leaves together, but that wasn't enough. Because
what did they do when God came calling? They hid from God. Look at Genesis 3, 8 through
10. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. So you see, although they had
attempted to cover their exposure to God's wrath, sewed fig leaves
together, that wasn't enough. They still saw it necessary to
hide when God came calling. And you can see this fear, that
fear was their motivator. Adam said, I hid because I was
afraid. And I was afraid because I was
not certain that what I had done to cover myself, cover my exposure
to your punishment. I wasn't sure that was good enough.
Adam sought his own solution to the problem that had befallen
man through his act of rebellion. He sought to solve the problem
on his own. Now, how does all this play out to the fallen sons
and daughters of Adam? Well, this fear had its beginning
there in the garden. Adam sought his own solution
to the sin problem. He sewed those fig leaves together
and he hid from God, but God didn't leave him there. God came
and showed him his own solution to fallen man's problem. God
slew an animal and clothed Adam and Eve in its skin. You can
read about that in Genesis 3.21. But what God was doing there
was picturing to Adam and Eve his solution to the sin problem,
the only solution to the sin problem. Because in picture and
type, he was showing him that it would take the blood of an
innocent victim And it would be the righteousness that Christ
worked out. That covering is a picture. Those
skins that he covered Adam and Eve with was a picture of that
righteous robe that Christ worked out by his obedience unto death.
But the fear born in Adam, in Adam's rebellion, that is what's
passed on to every fallen son and daughter of Adam. Just like
Adam, we think we can solve our sin problem. Just like Adam,
we think the solution to sin is in our doing. We gotta do
something. We think we got ourselves into
this mess, and we can do something to get ourselves out of this
mess. It's this fear that motivates the action of every unregenerate
sinner. Although the unregenerate sinner
doesn't realize that's what's motivating. It is, because we
know it because of God's testimony. But we don't realize that. We
don't recognize that by nature. Before God delivers us from this
fear, this legal fear, it's what moves us. It's what motivates
everything we do. We desire to avoid punishment.
We desire to be right with God. We want to go to heaven. We want
to be saved. So, We do. We worship. We reform our lives. We pray.
We give. We accept Jesus. We do whatever
we think will help us be in the favor of God. We do what we're
told. We do what preachers tell us.
We do whatever we think we need to do to avoid God's wrath and
be in His favor, and every act of doing is an attempt to avoid
the punishment we know we deserve. See, we don't have to be taught
that we're sinners. We don't have to be taught that
we deserve punishment. We don't even have to be taught
that God punishes. We know all that by nature. I
mean, the little child reaching his hand up on the counter into
the cookie jar knows he's doing wrong. He doesn't have to be
taught that's wrong. He already knows it. Every act of doing
is an attempt to avoid the punishment God's justice demands, and every
act of doing is an attempt to be right with God. I'm talking
about in a spiritual sense. All such acts of doing are the
products of legal fear. The scriptures declare that it
is this fear, this natural legal fear, that causes sinners to
seek and to see righteousness in themselves, just like the
Pharisees of Christ's day did. Look at Luke 18 in verse 9. And
Christ spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others." Now you know
this parable. This Pharisee said, I fast twice
a week, I tithe of all that I possess, I'm not like this publican, and
I thank you God that you've made me that way. But he was finding
righteousness within. That's what all of us do by nature.
We find righteousness in our doing. Every facet of this world's
religion, all the way back to Cain, who brought the works of
his own hands. Now he'd been taught what to
bring, the blood of a sacrifice, but he brought the works of his
hands. And this Pharisee in Christ's day, and the Pharisees of our
day, which we were among at one time. Every facet of this world's
religion is a promotion of just such self-righteousness, that
is, righteousness within, righteousness that comes by the doing of sinners. Self-righteous religion promotes
what comes natural to us all. It promotes this natural legal
fear that causes all without exception by nature in every
generation, no matter where you're born or who you're born to, it
causes us all to go about to establish a righteousness of
our own. Look at Romans 10, verses one
through three. Paul writes, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Being ignorant of God's righteousness is another way of saying that
sinners are ignorant of God's solution to the sin problem.
Because that's what God's righteousness is all about. His solution to
the sin problem. That's the knowledge that all
by nature are ignorant of. Fallen man, we know some things. We know we're sinners, we know
we deserve punishment, we know God punishes sin, but fallen
man is ignorant of God's righteousness. He's ignorant of what God has
done through Christ to take care of the sin problem. He's ignorant
that Christ has already put away the sin of every sinner he died
for and already brought in that everlasting righteousness by
which God justifies. ungodly sinners. Therefore, being
ignorant of God's solution to the sin problem, he thinks that
if he is to be free from God's just punishment, if he's to be
in God's favor, he's got to do something. That's why all by
nature are guilty of going about to establish a righteousness
of our own in opposition to God's righteousness. Now going about
to establish a righteousness of our own is what the scriptures
call committing sin. Look at John 8 and verse 34.
Jesus answered those he was speaking to and said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. Now committing sin is walking
in our natural legal fear, that fear we're born with, that fear
of punishment. Committing sin is trying to work
out our own righteousness before God. It's trying to avoid the
punishment we know sin deserves. It's seeking the favor of God
which we desire to have, but it's seeking it by our works
and not by the way God tells sinners to seek it through the
righteousness of Christ. Committing sin is not finding
all of salvation in the doing and dying of Christ alone. A
sinner commits sin who imagines that anything in them, even faith,
even repentance, even reformation, if we think that anything in
us makes up any part of the cause of God saving us, we're committing
sin. Committing sin is failing to
abide in Christ and his finished work alone for all of salvation.
John wrote in 1 John that whoever is born of God doesn't commit
sin. He does not commit sin. What
he's saying there, he does not fail to abide in Christ. He finds
all his hope in the doing and dying of Christ alone. So we're
talking about this natural legal fear that causes all of us by
nature to go about to establish our own righteousness, and in
doing so, to commit sin, and in committing sin, to be in bondage
to sin. This fear holds us all in bondage. We're ignorant that our actions
are motivated by legal fear. But by nature, we're ignorant
and we are by nature ignorant that our actions are holding
us in bondage to the sin that deceives us all. Whoever commits
sin, is a slave, a servant of sin. He's in bondage to sin.
This legal fear, therefore, is the fear that we need to be delivered
from. It's the fear we're born with, but we need to be delivered
from it. The scriptures tell us that deliverance
from this fear and the bondage it holds us in is one of the
main reasons Christ came. Look at Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 14 and 15. It says, for as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ 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 who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. Now you see that word destroy,
that Christ might destroy him. When we think of destroy, we
usually think of just annihilate, just completely wipe him out.
But that word means to render him powerless. You see, he has
the power of death. That's not the power to put us
to death physically. It's the power to hold us in
that bondage, that walking in legal fear. causes us to be in. We're in bondage because we're
trying to get ourselves out of the mess we're in. And Satan has the power to hold
us there. If our gospel's hid, it's hid
to them that are lost in whom the God of this world has blinded
the minds of them that believe not. So that's the power he has.
But Christ came in verse 15 to deliver them who through that
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Sinners need to be delivered from that fear. And one of the
reasons Christ came was to deliver his sheep from this fear. He
will without fail deliver his sheep But until he does, we're
in the bondage of this legal, natural fear that we all have
by nature. Now, that's a pretty lengthy
description of that first kind of fear, but I'm only talking
about two fears here. So that's the first kind of fear. It's natural. It's legal. It's
fear of death, fear of punishment. It's the fear that causes us
all to go about to establish a righteousness of our own. It's
the fear that holds us all in bondage. It's the only fear that
we have before we come to the knowledge of Christ. It's the
fear that all need to be delivered from, and it's the fear that
Christ will without fail deliver every one of his sheep from.
They won't be left in bondage to this fear. But the scriptures
speak of a second kind of fear. This is reverential fear. It's
fear that regards God's redemptive glory. In other words, it regards
how God can be just, how he can be doing right and yet show mercy
to ungodly sinners such as we are. God fights fear with fear. He fights that first fear, the
one we're all born with, with this second fear, this reverential
fear. Reverential fear is what overcomes
legal fear. It doesn't eliminate it. We still
have this fear. We still are subject to doubts
and uncertainties and concerns about our own eternal safety. But it does overcome it. It does
dominate the regenerate center. It overcomes this legal fear
in those that are taught of God. Let's begin our understanding
of this second kind of fear by seeing that it's absent in all
of us by nature. We don't have this fear, this
reverential fear, to any degree. None by nature have this fear.
Understand when we look at Romans 3 here, understand first that
Paul is writing about all without exceptions, no exceptions here.
Look at Romans chapter 3 and verse 9. He asked this question,
what then? Are we better than they? Now
he's asking, are the Jews better off than the Gentiles? Are we
better than they? No, and no wise, for we have
both proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all understand."
He's talking about everybody in the world. To them, it was
the Jews and everybody else, the Gentiles. So he's talking
about everybody. I mention this so that no one
can say, well, this may be true of some. Some might not have
this fear. Some might be under this legal
fear and not have this reverential fear. No, it's true of all. What is written here is true
of all without exception. No one is accepted from this.
This is the bottom line indictment on all the fallen sons and daughters
of Adam, just like Bill was reading in the earlier message there.
And I'll give you a summary of Romans 3, 10 through 18 here,
and not read all those verses. It starts out, there's none righteous.
None, by nature, have any righteousness within. There is no righteousness
within. In fact, there's only one righteousness,
and that's the one worked out by the Lord Jesus Christ. It
says there are none that seeking after a God, not after a God,
but after the true and living God, a just God and Savior. And
there's none doing good. None has done anything that can
measure up to God's standard in his character and conduct.
And then the bottom line, look at Romans 3, 18. There is no
fear of God before their eyes. No regard for God's justice in
dealing mercifully with fallen humanity. Now, I've already shown
you that we do fear. We do fear God's wrath. We do
fear his punishment. We all fear not being found in
God's favor. But the fear mentioned here in
Romans 3, 18, we don't have in any degree whatsoever by nature. None have any regard for what
God has done to deliver sinners from His wrath and punishment.
None know God or regard Him as the just God and Savior He declares
Himself to be. All by nature are ignorant of
God's righteousness. None of us know that Christ's
righteousness imputed alone is what makes it right, is what
makes it just for God to show us mercy. None of us know that
by nature. Now, we've already seen the proof
that this fear is absent in all by nature. What's the proof?
The proof is we're all going about to establish a righteousness
of our own, being ignorant of God's righteousness. And that's
in opposition to the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. All are committing sin. All are
in bondage to the sin that deceives us. And we go on here, although
God always commands otherwise. God commands sinners to fear
him. You can start at Genesis and
you can read it throughout the scriptures. He commands fear,
but God's command is not to be afraid of him. God's command
is to revere him, is to regard his redemptive glory, is to know
him and to honor him as he reveals himself in Isaiah 45, 21, a just
God and a savior. God's command is to give glory
to him as the God who justifies the ungodly based on the imputed
righteousness of Christ alone. Look at some commands of God
to fear or some statements about fear of God. Proverbs 1 and verse
7, fear God because that is where true knowledge begins. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and instruction. We don't know anything right
about God until he brings us to the knowledge of how he's
just to justify an ungodly sinner. Fear God because that's where
wisdom begins and how wisdom increases. Look at Psalm 111,
10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification and redemption. All the wisdom of God that a
sinner knows is found in the doing and dying of Christ and
the righteousness he worked out. Fear God because it adds understanding
to wisdom. Look at Proverbs 9 verse 10 and
along with Proverbs 4, 7 through 8. The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. And with
all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, that is wisdom, and
she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor
when thou dost embrace her. All that we understand from this
book is through the knowledge of how God can remain just and
deal mercifully with ungodly sinners. And the last one, fear
God because it's the whole duty of man. Look at Ecclesiastes
chapter 12, verses 13 and 14. This is the conclusion of the
book of Ecclesiastes. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil. Now how is a person going to
keep God's commandments? Only in Christ. That's the only
way. He's the one who kept them. And the only way we'll ever be
seen as doing right in that sense, keeping the law in all its precepts,
is to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of our
own, but the righteousness that he worked out. The final judgment
of every work would be in reference to whether it was done in one
of these two fears, reverential fear or legal fear. What is motivating
the work? Is it a regard for a just God
and Savior? Is it resting in the finished
work of Christ alone? Or is it the fear of a God who
will punish you if you don't do and keep on doing and do more? a God that you can never find
any comfort and assurance under. It's one or the other. God commands
fear. He commands a regard for his
redemptive glory. How do sinners get this second
kind of fear? We're not born with it. How do
we get it? This fear is a gift of the spirit. It's given in
regeneration. None have this fear to any degree
before we're born of God. This is fear we begin to have
only after we come to the gospel, only after we come to the knowledge
of Christ. This is fear we begin to have
only after the spirit shows us the things of Christ, causes
us to value what Christ has done to save his people from their
sins. This is fear we begin to have
only after the Spirit comes to us in the power of the gospel. Only after we are delivered to
that form of doctrine that reveals to us for the first time a just
God and a Savior. Look at Romans 6, verses 17 and
18. Paul writes, but God bethanked that you were the servants of
sin, but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered you. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. Now you notice in verse 16, none
start out servants of righteousness. We start out servants of sin. But he said, you've obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine and that should read to which
you are delivered because that doctrine is not just delivered
to us. We're delivered to that doctrine. We have a new message
that we didn't have before. We have a new gospel that we
didn't have before. It's the gospel that reveals
the very righteousness of God or how God can remain just and
justify the ungodly. Being then made free from sin,
we have to be made free from that sin that's holding us in
bondage. And not before then do we become the servants of
righteousness. God delivers his people. He brings
them to the gospel and shows them what Christ has done that
enables him to be just and justify the ungodly. One more scripture
on how sinners get reverential fear. He delivers us to the gospel
and then he puts his fear in us. Look at Jeremiah 32 verses
37 through 40. Behold, I will gather them out
of all countries, whither I have driven them, in mine anger, and
in my fury, and in great wrath. And I will bring them again into
this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they
shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give
them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever,
for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their
hearts that they shall not depart from me. Now the first application
of Jeremiah here, of course, is to the nation Israel. As Jim's
teaching us in Romans, there are two Israels. There's national
Israel and there's spiritual Israel. So the first application,
he's talking about gathering his people and bringing them
back out of the, they've been sent off into bondage and he's
going to gather them back. And he did that. He brought them
back. uh... more than once but we can see
this is talking about spiritual israel in verse forty he said
i'll make an everlasting covenant with them that's made with spiritual
israel that's made with those who were chosen in christ before
the world began and given all the spiritual blessings of christ
in him god puts his fear in the hearts of his people in other
words he reveals to them that the only way he can be doing
right that he can be just in saving them and giving them all
the benefits and blessings of his mercy and grace is in the
finished work of Christ alone. He brings us to himself through
Christ crucified and he keeps us the same way. He says, they
shall not depart from me. If you fear God, you can't leave.
If you fear God, you're stuck. You can't leave this gospel.
You can't leave this Savior. You can't leave this just God
and Savior. You can't go back where you used
to listen to a message that taught you of a of a Savior who only
made salvation a possibility. You can't do that. Not if God's
put his fear in you. You have to stay right here or
somewhere where the gospel is being preached. God puts his
fear in you and you can't depart. Here's an either or. Either Christ
died for you, and this is an important and right here, and
Christ's death ended your punishment. He died for you and his death
ended your punishment. In other words, there's no possibility
that you can ever be punished for your sins. By his stripes
you are healed. You already have been and forever
will be healed by Christ's death alone. You already are and forever
will be eternally in God's favor. He declares you unchangeably
righteous because of Christ's righteousness imputed alone.
That's either or. You're under the wrath of God
without discourse. You'll pay for your sins in your
own person. Either Christ has taken care
of your sins in full, either you're justified by the righteousness
of Christ, or you will spend eternity paying for your own
sins and they'll never be paid for. Under a just God, there's
no possibility that Christ died for you, yet you're still facing
the punishment that Christ has already endured in your place.
There's no possibility that Christ just came to make salvation possible. No, He actually accomplished
the salvation of those He died for. In the Scriptures, there's
no such thing as Christ dying for a sinner. And that sinner
he died for being in any danger of punishment, in any danger
of eternal death. In the spiritual realm, fear
motivates everything we do. You're motivated by fear. The
question is, which fear? Is it legal fear? Is it fear
that you've not done enough? That you're not continuing to
do what you should do? That you could end up under the
eternal wrath of God if you don't keep on keeping on? Is it that
fear? Or is it the reverential fear
that sees God just to save us, to forgive us, and to take us
to heaven based on the merits of Christ's work? His righteousness
is charged to our account without any contribution from us whatsoever. We all start out under legal
fear. We all start out under the fear
of punishment. We all start out in the bondage
of going about to establish a righteousness of our own. But Christ will not
leave a single one of his sheep in bondage to that fear. He will
fight that fear and overcome it with the fear that regards
his father's redemptive glory. Fear not, little children. God
will put his fear in your heart that you shall not depart from
him. So in closing, I encourage you,
whoever you are listening, I encourage you to seek Seek to be found
in Christ and his imputed righteousness. Seek the God who is just to save
by the merits of Christ's obedience unto death alone. Seek the God
who in a people of his choosing and in a people that he calls
by his gospel will not fail to fight fear with fear.