Fear is a horrible thing to live
with. Someone said, fear is the tax
the conscience pays to guilt. Fear destroys joy. Fear erodes pleasure. Fear forbids peace. Fear torments the heart. Fear is a horrible thing to live
with. And yet no man living is free of fear. Sometimes preachers
get carried away and say much more than they mean. Sometimes
they mean more than they understand. Some years back, I heard a young
upstart make this statement, and young preachers can be pretty
bold. He said, fear and faith cannot exist together. I've heard
others say, he who doubts is damned. But neither are true. They may be idealistic, but they're
not true. If we believe God, we should
not be afraid. If we have faith, we ought to
be free of fear. but we very often are not what
we should be or want to be or ought to be. Too often we do
not behave as we should, as we want, as we ought to. The way
things are and the way they should be are usually two different
things. David, the man after God's own
heart, I don't think anyone would doubt when I tell you that David
was a man who believed God. A man of remarkable faith. David wrote in Psalm 56 when
the Philistines had taken him to Gath, what time I am afraid
I will trust in thee. His enemies oppressed him. Daily
they sought his life. They were many, they were mighty,
and they were united in his destruction. and David was afraid. I expect
you would be too. Me too. Yet David was a child
of God. He was born again. He was a believer. He walked with God. I offer no
excuses for his sinful fear, nor for mine or yours. I simply state it as a matter
of fact that's undeniable. No man living in this earth is
entirely free of fear. If a man says to me, I have no
fear, I question either his sanity or his honesty. Having said that,
I want you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 12 and verse two. Read with me the first two lines
of Isaiah 12, two. behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. I will trust and not be afraid. That's my text. I will trust
and not be afraid. My subject is faith and fear. Faith in Christ both vanquishes
fear and sometimes causes fear. I recognize that there are at
least four groups of people listening to me tonight. I'm certain that
every one of you here in this congregation will fit into one
of these four groups. I won't venture to guess who
fits where or try because I know that I do not know the hearts
of men. and I have no way of discerning
what's inside you. But as I speak to you and speak
to you from both the word of God and what I know by experience,
you will know where you fit. Some of you have neither faith
nor fear, as it's spoken of in our text. You may fear many things,
but you're without fear toward God. You're yet lost. dead in
trespasses and in sins. You don't fear the wrath of God
and you don't fear the judgment of God. You don't fear eternal
ruin, at least not presently, though you have no faith. You
have no fear because you think that you're righteous and good. You think that you have merit
that you can bring to God, so you refuse to trust the Lord
Jesus. As long as any human being presumes
he is good, he will not seek grace. As long as you think you're
righteous, you will not seek the righteousness of another.
As long as you think you're worthy, you will never trust the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And many, all being by nature,
look themselves over, comparing themselves with others, and this
is their response. Man, did you see what they had
in the paper this morning? Did you hear on the news what
that man did? Did you read what that lady did? I am not as other men are. I am rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing. Most people think that way about
themselves. The poor, blind, deluded soul
ignorant of his own heart, out of which proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, lying, blasphemy, and all manner
of evil. That's what your heart is by
nature. Our Lord said so. Men by nature
are ignorant of God's law. They look upon the Ten Commandments
and may even march in protest because they don't have the Ten
Commandments posted in the schoolroom. But they look at the Ten Commandments
as something that they can do. They don't understand that the
law of God demands perfection. And the law was given that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. Men think about righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God. They go about to establish their
own righteousness and refuse to submit themselves unto the
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. Most people think of the righteousness
of God only as an attribute of God, not as something accomplished
by God. God demands that you and I be
righteous. And men go about to establish
righteousness for themselves by their good works, by refraining
from evil, by not being so terribly bad, by doing religious things
and charitable things, refusing to submit to the righteousness
of God, which is Jesus Christ the Lord, trusting the righteousness
of another. They're ignorant of the gospel
of God, the gospel by which God sets forth his righteousness,
by which God declares his justice, by which God asserts his propitiation
for sin through Christ the Lord so that he might be just and
the justifier of the ungodly. Others of you have fear but no
faith. Though you may not use the words,
you practically say this, I will be afraid and not trust. You're sufficiently aware of
your sin and your guilt and of the holiness and justice of God
to make you afraid of his wrath, but you go no further. You refuse
to trust Christ. I'm afraid for you. I fear you
may begin to trust your fear and look upon it as faith and
think that fear is salvation. About, oh, it's been nearly 40
years ago, I was preaching in Almont, Michigan, first time
I'd ever been there, and I was sitting beside a man at dinner
who said to me, I know I'm a lost sinner. And we talked a little
bit, a little bit more, and he said, he said, I've been a lost
sinner for a long time. In fact, he was a Sunday school
teacher, been teaching Sunday school for 20 years. because
he had been taught to think, once I know I'm a lost sinner,
everything's all right. And I said to him, he said, I've
been seeking the Lord for 20 years. I said, if you'd been
seeking Him for 20 years, you'd have found Him by now. You're
deluding yourself. Some people think conviction
is the doorstep to heaven, and perhaps it is, but it would be
a horrible thing to get to the doorstep and miss heaven. If
you're on the doorstep, you're still outside the door. You're
still without Christ. If you're not saved, you're lost. There's no in between ground.
If you're not alive, you're dead. If you're not washed, you're
unclean. If you're not regenerate, you're
unregenerate. If you're not born again, you're
dead in trespasses and in sins. So I urge you to believe on the
Son of God. I have in the past said seek
faith, but that's not right. Don't seek faith, seek Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior said, look unto me
and be you saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and
beside me there is none else. Look away right now. Look away
from yourself to Christ the Lord and have a life everlasting. Go down like that publican, went
down from the temple to your house justified, forgiven, reconciled
to God, accepted with God, one with Christ. And then there's
a third group. You have faith, but still cling
to fear. You're a true believer. You acknowledge
your sin. You trust Christ as your only
all-sufficient Savior. You trust His blood atonement,
His perfect righteousness, His saving grace, and yet you live
in constant fear. It may be that your fear keeps
you from confessing Christ, keeps you from the blessed ordinances
of the gospel, baptism, the Lord's table. I don't press people to
do things, but I have some that I care deeply for who tell me
they're believers, but they haven't yet confessed Christ. And I wanna
find ways to help you. You're full of doubts and melancholy
difficulties and your soul refuses peace. You seem determined to
shut yourself out from comfort. When the sun shines brightly
and it looks like the light shines in your soul, you pull down the
shades lest you should have any light and you go on in despair.
Such a disposition is dishonoring to God. It's right to doubt yourself. Oh, God teach us always to question
ourselves, but it's never right to doubt God. This is what God
says. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Isn't that a plain statement? What a plain statement. Not he
that believeth on the Son and doesn't, or he that believeth
on the Son and does. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. And you who believe ought to
trust God fully at his word. This very night, I urge you to
confess as the prophet does, behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. Now, I said earlier, some folks
have the idea that you can't have faith and doubt your assurance. That's not really true, that's
not really true. Sadly, for the believer who trust
the Lord Jesus, he often looks at himself. She often looks at
herself and says, how could a man be a believer and do this or
feel that or think this? he that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. I think I speak plainly enough
that you understand and I declare to you what God says in His Word,
fornicators, adulterers, murderers and such like shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. But I know a man by the name
of David, who was an adulterer and a murderer who inherited
the kingdom of God. He believed God. And the Lord
God Almighty took away his murder and his adultery before it was
committed and fully forgave him of all his sin. There's a difference
between faith and the assurance of faith. But we must never be
content without the blessed joy of the full assurance of faith. The full assurance of faith. Some years ago, Shelby and I
got on a plane over here in Lexington. I forgot where we were going.
I think we're getting ready to take off to California. But there
was a lady who got on and sat down right behind Shelby. Now,
we've flown enough, and I realize maybe we ought not be too comfortable
in the air, but we've flown enough that a shaky plane doesn't bother
us much. Going through turbulence doesn't
bother us much. Even hitting those air pockets where it feels
like you've dropped a thousand feet doesn't bother us much,
because we've always gotten to our destination. But this gal
got on a plane and she had never flown. She was a grown woman. And I could tell something was
bothering her. About the time the pilot started
the engines, this lady reached up and grabbed hold of Shelby
and expressed her fear. She was utterly terrified. And my poor wife's got, her arthritis
wasn't as bad then as it is now, but maybe that was the cause
of it. I thought the woman was gonna break her head. I mean,
she just squeezed and squeezed and cried and squeezed and cried
until finally we got in the air. wasn't at least a bit shaky.
How come? They were both on the same plane
because one was confident and the other wasn't. Both were equally
safe, and so it is with God's people in this world. Some go
through this world on the troubled waters of this world in the good
ship of grace with Christ at the helm, and some are just peaceful,
comfortable, happy, and others full of turbulence. Years ago,
years ago, it's been a long time ago, I was just a young man.
My dear friend, Brother Harry Graham, made the statement to
me. He said, I forgot what date it
was, when it was, the year he told me God had saved him. He
said, and I've never had a doubt since. And he'd been pastoring
at that time for a long time. Harry was at least 30, 35 years
older than me. And honestly, if any other man
that I knew at the time had said that to me, I might not have
said it to him, but I'd have said to myself, that just ain't
so. fully confident he had never had to deal with it. And then
when he was an old man, he left this world full of confusion
and doubt and darkness, believing the same God, trusting the same
Savior. Believers ought never look to
themselves for peace, assurance, and acceptance with God, but
only to Christ. Then there are some, perhaps
some here who are blessed of God with the full assurance of
faith. But I'm gonna tell you something.
You may have that now, and before you leave the building, you'll
find some reason to question God. You may with confidence
and honesty declare, behold, God is my salvation. I will trust
and not be afraid. The person who can truthfully
make that confession is one who has felt something of the anger
of God in his soul and has known the terror of God's law in his
heart and knows what it is to be made free. The one who's never been under
the burden of sin can never know the joy of faith. He who's never
known the fear and dread of God's anger and wrath can never know
the joy of God's anger turned away. But for the believer, there
is therefore now, right now, no condemnation to them that
believe. No condemnation. Behold, God
is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. The person who can truthfully
make this confession enjoys what Paul calls the consolation of
the scriptures in Romans 15.4. He enjoys the blessed consolation
of that covenant mercy David spoke of in the next chapter.
The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered
in all things ensure this is all my salvation and all my desire. He enjoys the blessed comfort
of true substitution. The sacrifice of God's darling
son satisfying the justice of God by his sin atoning death. He enjoys the blessed reality
of salvation by grace. Can you get hold of this? God
Save sinners by grace. No contribution from you. Nothing to be added by you. By
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. This
grace, this faith, this salvation is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Being saved by God's free grace,
we are freely and fully justified from all things, forgiven of
all sin by the precious blood of God's darling Son. Behold,
God is my salvation, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Ghost. I will trust and not be afraid. Simeon saw the Lord Jesus. He had been waiting for the consolation
of Israel. And when he saw that baby brought
into the temple, he said, let me hold him for a minute. And
he said, Lord, now mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Let
me go ahead and die now. Let thy servant die in peace. God is my salvation. If God be for us, who can be
against us? How shall he that spared not
his own son and delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
freely give us all things in him? It's who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect. It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died. What, who shall separate us from
the love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord? Nothing and nobody. Now here's the second thing.
If God is my salvation, there are certainly some things I have
no reason to fear ever. I do not mean to suggest to you
that I'm free of fear. I'm not. I should be, but I'm
not. My fear is my shame. When I was
growing up, things were different. Some of you men grew up in the
same era, boys just didn't dare show fear. They just didn't dare
show fear, not to friends and not to other folks. If they did,
they suffered for it. I've told you before, I used
to go visit my grandparents in the mountains in North Carolina,
and they lived up a holler. And they'd talk about the prisoners
escaping and hiding out up in the mountains, they'd find a
prisoner up there. And then they'd send me back there to sleep about
that far from the road, just a dirt road with no pavement,
to go back there and sleep in a room by myself. And there wasn't
any sleeping. I'd lay there all night long
and count the cracks in the walls. And sometimes they'd send me
from my great aunt's house up to my grandmother's house. It
was only about three quarters of a mile up to the head of the
holler, but it seemed to me like it was 300 miles. And I'd go
out at night, pitch black and dark, and my grandmother had
a little yellow bulb, I guess it went bug bulbs. It might have
had five or 15 watts, and it'd light up to just a little bit
of the porch. And I'd get out in the dark and I would take
off running up that mountain. I mean run as hard as I could,
scared to death. Scared to death, but I didn't
want anybody to know it. So I get top of the hill. Of
course, I didn't realize I was, my hair was wringing wet, my
clothes were wringing wet. I was just sweating, but I'd pretend
I wasn't scared. I'd walk the rest of the way,
try to whistle. And they knew what was going on, but you just
didn't dare show it. Well, the fact is we do have
our fears, but there's no reason for it. There's no reason for
it. No reason. for you and me to
fear Satan and all the wiles of the devil. When Satan raises
Moses up and would accuse and condemn, the Lord Jesus our Savior
stands by. No reason for us to be fearful
of men and what they might do to us. Though we are, it's senseless. It's just senseless. No reason
to fear the world and what the world may do and that affect
us. What fears we have, no reason
for that. You see, God rules the world. And God rules men. And God rules the devil. And
he's our God, Mark. He's our God. But in the context,
this statement is made with reference particularly to the anger, wrath,
holiness, and justice of God. The text means this. God is my
salvation. I will trust and not be afraid
of him. I will trust and not be afraid
of him. I don't qualify for giving counsel
about parenthood. I just have one child, and we
just have our two grandchildren and Doug. And I hope they respect
me. I want that. I want them to pay
attention to what I say to them. I want them to pay attention
to things with which I counsel them. but I'd have a tough time
sleeping at night if they were afraid of me. I'm daddy, you're
just not supposed to be afraid of daddy. I'm pop, you're just
not supposed to be afraid of pop. God is our father. What a shame for us to fear him
in the sense of being afraid of him. Trust in Christ. Oh, God give me such grace to
trust Him that I do not fear all my past sin. I'm ashamed of it and I still
weep over it, but I'm not afraid because of it. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses me from all sin. And trusting Christ
I have no reason to be afraid of God because of my present
evil. I'm ashamed of that, even more than of the past. And
I confess it. But Jesus Christ is the propitiation
for my sin. He says, when you see it, everything's
all right, nothing's changed. The Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous
one, He's the propitiation for our sin. And trust in Christ,
I will not be afraid of future transgressions. Read the 89th
Psalm. The Lord God speaking of the
Lord Jesus says, my mercy will I keep for him forevermore. My covenant shall stand fast
with him. His seed will I make to endure
forever. If his children forsake my law
and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not
utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant
will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my
lips. Trust in Christ, we have no reason to be afraid of God. Not in time, not in the day of
death, not in the day of judgment, not in eternity. Between now
and my divinely appointed last day, whatever it is that God
calls me to do or to suffer for his namesake, God, give me grace,
I will trust and not be afraid. He has promised to supply all
our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Our Savior said to his disciples,
don't worry about what you're gonna wear or where you're gonna
live or what you're gonna eat. He said, the Gentiles, the heathen,
that's what they seek after. Your Father knows you have needed
these things. When I began preaching, I had
no thought of preaching. I was just 17 years old. It hadn't
been but just a little while, the Lord had saved me, and folks
asked me if I would speak to this group or that, and I did. And then other places opened
up, and I'd be asked to take a class, a study group, and preach
here and preach there. And while I was in college, Shelby
and I traveled, we'd pack faith up and go somewhere to preach
at least every other weekend. At those early days, though,
I didn't have a thought about preaching. I never thought about
it. And I knew, I knew I wouldn't fit for it. I was sure enough
aware that when God saved me, I couldn't hardly read, much
less stand up in public and read. I just wasn't equipped, but God
opened the door and I got two choices. I got two choices. I can either say no, I will not
tell needy souls what God has done for me. Our spirit of God
helped me and I'll tell anybody that'll listen to me what you've
done for me. And that's what I do preaching
to this day. I'm just here to tell you what
God's done for me. and what God's doing for me,
and I hope you can get in on it. That's really the essence
of it, talking to you about God's free grace in Christ. And you
know what God has graciously done these 50 years? He's provided
everything needed in every situation, in every circumstance, wondrously. I wonder why we ever question
God's provision for anything, for anything. I can't do that. If God gives it to you to do,
you can do it. If God puts it in your hand,
you can do it. God told Moses, said, send the children of Israel
out every morning to gather bread enough to do them till tomorrow
morning. On Friday, send them out to gather enough to do them
until Sunday morning. And for 40 years, now listen
to me, for 40 years, God calls the heavens to rain 100,000 bushes
of bread every day. For 40 years. What was it you
have question about? What was it you think God won't
provide or he won't do? He will protect his own. He'll
protect me in all my ways. He said, don't be afraid. The very hairs of your head are
all numbered. I counted them up before ever
the world was made. And I determined exactly how
many hairs you would have on your head every day you walk
on this earth. Your heavenly Father cares for
you. He will preserve me by his grace. and he'll receive me in death.
So thirdly, we who believe on the Son of God should earnestly
seek from our God this confident faith in him. You see, fear and
faith really are totally inconsistent with each other. Fear is unbelief. Faith is freedom from fear. And
to the extent that I trust God, I'm free from fear. And to the
extent that I'm fearful, I'm plunged in despair. Things come up and, oh, what
do I do now? Just wait, just wait. The first
thing we ought to do is just be easy. That's the first thing
to do. And then if action is required,
you can take it. We do things just the opposite.
We respond, and then, well, I wish I'd have waited. Wait, just wait. Gotta direct your steps. To the extent that I'm afraid,
I'm plagued with unbelief. You see, fear is a shameful thing. It's detrimental among us. It dishonors God. How would you sleep at night
if those children and grandchildren didn't trust you? You can't depend
on him. He's given his word too many
times. You'd go mad. God is worthy of
trust. implicit, confident, constant
trust. Fear not only dishonors him,
it robs you of joy, keeps you from enjoying the mercies of
God, goodness of God. Some years ago, my mother was
still alive. She said in my presence one time,
she tended to overstate things and she that was known to grumble
a little bit. She said, well, we won't have
enough money to bury us when we die. And I said, mother, I
can give you confident assurance of this. We'll get you in the
ground. So you don't have to worry about
that. We'll get you in the ground. Oh, how we foolishly distrust
God. Fear increases and multiplies
rapidly. You start to fear and then you
find a thousand reasons to fear and folks around you fear. One
of our great southern commanders, and he was truly a great man,
usually folks have a name beyond reality, but Stonewall Jackson,
Thomas J. Jackson, was a remarkable man. I have read and I have seen in
various history clips on television pictures of Jackson standing
like a stone wall before his troops. One of his under commanders
said to him one day, General Jackson, I don't see how you
can stand so fearless in the heat of the battle. And this
was Jackson's response to him. I think I've got it exactly right.
Did all men alike believe God? All men alike would be brave
and fearless. Oh, God give me that kind of
faith. to walk in the face and heat
of hell in front of me, bold and courageous and without fear,
believing God. Faith in God is the blessed work
and gift of God's grace. It pleases God, it honors God,
and it gives you peace. Turn to Philippians chapter 4.
Let me show you this. You're familiar with it. Philippians
chapter 4. How can you have peace in the
midst of trouble? Peace in the midst of heartache.
Peace in the midst of trial. Peace when you're opposed. Philippians
chapter 4 verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Let
your moderation The word is gentleness. Gentleness. Undisturbed gentleness. Unruffled gentleness. How can
you be so calm? I believe God. How can you take
this? I believe God. Let your moderation
be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. The Lord
is at hand. Be careful for nothing. That means Rex Bartley, you and
your pastor ought to be the most careless people in the world. Not ever care in the world. Be
careful for nothing. Stop worrying about anything. Be anxious for nothing. How is
that? But in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
to God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep. The peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall set a company guard around your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus. Believe God, believe God and
walk in peace. As God sets a guard around your
heart and mind. Paul and Silas knew something
about that when they were in prison. And they sang God's praise. And knowing, knowing that the
officer would be commanded to slay them, stayed right there. and waited to do him good. Paul
was on a doomed ship. God told him he was gonna be
wrecked. And Paul, believing God, said, don't you fellas get
off this ship. If you get off the ship, you're
gonna die. But God told me, stay with the ship and you'll be all
right. Not one man will die. And they threw all the junk overboard. That is all the stuff that didn't
have to do with life. They just threw it overboard
and stayed on the ship. And though it's wrecked, not
one man died. Why? Be afraid. God said, everybody's
gonna survive. You stay on the ship. You stay
on the ship. It's faith. Faith in Christ that
makes saved sinners strong to serve him, to do his will. How can you expect a man to do
this or do that? How can you expect a woman to
do this or do that? Well, I don't, unless you believe
God. Oh, but if you believe God, I
have every reason to expect you and expect myself to walk before
God in obedience in every circumstance. every reason to do so. There
was an old man, an 80 year old man. Bobby is almost as old as
you. His name was Caleb. And God promised Caleb a mountain. And after Moses was dead and
Aaron was dead, Caleb said to Joshua, give me this mountain. I can take it. God said it was
mine. And he did. He did. Oh, God make me such a faithful
dog. David came out against Goliath
and he went out with just a sling and some stones and they said,
how dare you go out there? He said, is there not a cause? God's name is at stake. Peter
and John learned together to believe God and they stood before
the Sanhedrin and they said, this man had been made whole
by the name and the authority and the power of Jesus of Nazareth,
whom you fellows crucified and hung on a tree. Now you do what
you have to. Faith in Christ. somehow is an instrument in God's
hands by which others are encouraged to believe. Look back over your
own life's experience and tell me, have you not often been encouraged
in the midst of difficulty to be comfortable and at ease just
beholding the faith of another? Faith encourages others to believe,
Faith believes God and receives blessings poured out in abundance
from the hand of God. Our Lord said to one man, if
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. That doesn't mean what these
modern health, wealth, prosperity fools tell folks it does. If
you want a Cadillac, just believe God, he'll give you a Cadillac.
That's talking about the lust of the flesh. That's not talking
about believing God. But whatever it is that God puts in your hand,
whatever trouble, whatever warfare, whatever trial, whatever work,
believe God and do it. Believe God and move on. Believe God and don't look backwards. Believe God and walk with him. Our Lord told his disciples,
he said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you
might say to this sycamore tree, be thou uprooted by the root
and be thou planted in the sea and it would obey you. I've never
seen anybody jerk up a sycamore tree by faith and throw it in
the sea. So I presume there's never been
anybody walked on this earth except the Son of God who had
faith even as a grain of mustard seed. God give me a little faith. that
I may believe you and work faith in me every moment of every hour
of every day, no matter what lies before me. And God do that
for you. God give you faith now in the
Son of God, calls you to believe on the Lord Jesus and go home
with God's salvation. yours forever, trusting the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.