If you want to turn with me to
my text this morning, you'll find it in 2 Corinthians chapter
7. Thank you for your kindness and
your hospitality and your patience. And I'll say again, I have ate
so well. Oh, I have ate and I've ate.
Some of you ladies brought food over to Larry's and just so good. Thank you. Thank you for treating
me like a king. Let's look at this together.
I just want to begin here and probably just read the one verse. In verse 5, 2 Corinthians chapter
7, verse 5. For when we were come unto Macedonia,
our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings, and within
were fears. Verse 6, Nevertheless God that
comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming
of Titus and not by his coming only but by the consolation were
with he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest
desire your mourning your firm mind towards me so that I rejoice
the more. I was thinking about verse 5
here that was He said, We were troubled on every side, without
were fightings, and within were fears. And what the Apostle Paul
does here is relate some of his problems, some of his troubles,
his struggles, his trials. He calls it here, troubled on
every side, and he describes it in these two ways, without
and within. There were fightings without
and fears within. And I want you to look over here
in chapter four, just back to your left, just a little bit.
This is our apostle. This is the apostle to the Gentiles. We call him our apostle. It's
not that the other apostles didn't write to us, but he was especially
our apostle. He went out into the world of
the Gentiles preaching. And here in the context of chapter
four, He speaks of his ministry that he had received of the Lord
Because we've received such a ministry of God's grace in Christ. We
don't think He said we've have this precious treasure in verse
7. The gospel is a treasure. He
said that we preach we preach it to people and you would think
that the Lord having send up sent a man of to preach the gospel
of the grace of God, such good news to this world that he'd
have no trouble. The world would receive him and
rejoice in him and thank God. But it didn't happen that way,
did it? Look what he said in verse 8. He says this again.
2 Corinthians 4, 8. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not
destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." He was trouble. And you know this is just exactly
what the Lord Jesus told his disciples, or his apostles. He
said, don't marvel when you go to preach to these people that
they hate you. The world's gonna hate you, and
they're gonna hate you because they hated me first. They're
gonna cast you out of the synagogue. Some of you they're gonna kill,
thinking they do God's service. These men suffered, didn't they?
They whipped them, they threatened them, and some of them they killed.
Troubled. without. Fightings without. Look in another place in chapter
11 of this same book. Chapter 11
and look in verse 23. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 23. Paul speaking about these false
apostles that bragged about what ministers they were. Are they
ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool I am more.
in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received
I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and the day
I have spent in the deep, in journeyings often in pearls of
water, in pearls of robbers, in pearls by my own countrymen,
in pearls by the heathen, in pearls in the city, in pearls
in the wilderness, pearls in the sea, pearls among false brethren,
in weariness and painfulness, toils, in watchings often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and neckiness,
besides those things which are without those things which cometh
upon me daily, the care of all the church. Boy, that's suffering,
isn't it? Fightings without trouble on
every side. I've not had much of this physical
trouble. Have you? I've been spared of
that and most of you have too and I don't pray for it. I never
will pray for it. But this man suffered, didn't
he? What an example He is to you and me of denying ourselves,
taking up our cross and following the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter
what opposition that we have to face. But this Apostle had
not only trouble on every side without, but he talks here about
fears within. Fears within his own heart. He
had fears within his own soul. You'd wonder what a man like
this had to fear within his own heart. But he tells us in his
epistles some of the things that he feared, and it was concerning
the churches. He had fears in his heart concerning
congregations that the Lord had saved and established under his
ministry. Listen to some of these things
that he feared within his own heart. He feared for this church
here in Corinth that he was writing to over some moral issues among
them. Don spoke about it, what a mess
this church was in morally. And he said, out of much affliction
and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears. And here's what he said, I feared,
lest when I come, I shall find you such as I would not. Lest
there be debates among you, and envions, and strifes, and wraths,
and backbitings, and swellings, and turmoil. Lest when I come
again, my God will humble me among you, that I bewail many
that have sinned already, and have not repented of their uncleanness
and fornication." He said, I fear, I've got a fear inside my heart
because of you and what's happened among you. And then over doctrinal
issues among this church, here's what he said concerning their
doctrines, some of their doctrines. He said, I'm jealous over you
with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,
but I fear I have these fears within my heart, lest by any
means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity, the singleness,
the unmixedness that's in Jesus Christ. Christ is all. And we are accepted in Him and
we're complete in Him. And any mixture of anything else,
Paul said, corrupts the simplicity that is in Christ. And he said,
I fear, my heart fears that Satan is going to so work among you
that you leave the simplicity that's in Christ. Isn't that
easy done? Haven't we seen children of God
do it? And it breaks our hearts. Paul
was writing to the Church of Galatians and here's what he
said about them. I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid
for you. I'm afraid in my heart for you.
You that did run well. You received and you believed
the gospel of the grace of Christ and you ran so well. But he said
now you desire to leave Christ and go to Moses. You desire to
leave the grace of Christ and go to the law, and I'm afraid
of you, lest I bestowed labor upon you in vain. I stand in
doubt of you. He was writing to the church
of Thessalonica, and here's what he said to them. When I could
no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by any
means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain. He had inward fears, didn't he?
troubles without, all of this fighting, the Jews laying wait
for me, shipwrecked and beaten and stoned, but I got these inward
fears, he said, these inward fears. I tell you another one
he had, he was writing to this same church in his first epistle
and he said this, and this is a very often quoted scripture
and you probably know it by heart, he said, when I came to you I
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing
among you, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And listen, I
was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling." What
was this man fearful about when he came preaching the gospel
to him? He preached in such plainness
of speech and he said it was so necessary that I preach in
such plainness of speech that your faith won't stand in the
wisdom of men but in the power of God. He was so weak in his
body and frail and when he spoke he spoke with
such plainness of speech it just made these philosophers so mad.
It made him so mad. He had all these big crowds flocking
to hear him. And he was speaking in such plain
language. And those philosophers said,
Why can't you preach like we do? Why don't you tell the people
to bring their dictionaries and look up words to understand?
Why are you preaching with such plainness of speech? He said,
I tremble to think that I'd preach in any other way. But in plainness
of speech. Your faith don't stand in my
wisdom. But it stands in the power of
God. And he said that for this reason.
Boy, he was so concerned about the glory of Jesus Christ. The glory of God in Christ. Every
time he stood to preach, that was his main concern. Is that
not enough to make you tremble? that I'd get up and read God's
Word and preach for it, from it, and not set forth the glory
of the eternal God, the gospel of His grace? That's enough to
make a man tremble, isn't it? That's why He said, pray for
me. Pray to God for me, that He would open a door of utterance,
that I might preach what I ought to preach, and how I ought to
preach it. set forth Jesus Christ in his
glory and he said when I stand to preach to you I tremble in
my soul. I was at a place one time preaching
and I went back to use the restroom. I was the next preacher and there
was a A boy in there, he's about 16 years old, and I just jokingly
said, I said, you know, I don't much want to go to the pulpit
this morning. I'll give you $10 to take my notes and go to the
pulpit. And you know what he says? You
give me the $10 and I'll go. And you know what I told him?
Man, you have no idea. You have no idea. Paul said,
I fear and I tremble in my soul when I think of speaking on behalf
of God. Well, he feared for this reason
when he preached. Everywhere he went, he feared
for the souls of those he preached to. Not only did he fear for
the glory of God in Christ to set it forth, but he trembled
for those who heard him, that they would hear and believe. He made one of the most awesome
statements about this. There in Romans, When he was
talking about his countrymen, I could wish that myself were
accursed from Christ. That's the burden he bore for
them. I pray for them, my countrymen, that God would save them. And
if I could be accursed, I would for them. You see him before he goes to
preach, off by himself, pouring out his soul to God, to be merciful
to those he preached to. He feared and he trembled for
this. I'll tell you something else
he feared. He feared for those who opposed Christ and his gospel. He feared for them. There's many
walk, he said. There's many profess. to know
Christ. There are some who profess to
preach Him, but he said they're enemies of the cross of Christ. And he said, I tell you this
with weeping. He wept for them, didn't he?
You ain't going to believe this, but there's been one or two times
in my Christian life I have wept for the Pope. I hate that man with a passion.
I hate all he stands for. But I fear for his soul. and
he's gonna perish if the Lord don't break in upon him and save
him. Just like the rest of them perished. I fear. Paul feared for the souls of
men when he thought of the judgment that they must face. He said
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ knowing
therefore the terror of The Lord, we persuade men. When we talk to men, and we know
where they stand before God, we know their relationship with
God, and that they're under God's judgment. And old Scott used
to say they're skating on thin ice. They're ready to break through
and fall into the hands of an angry God, and we tremble, don't
we? Stand before the Lord of Glory and have Him to say, bind
that man hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. I fear!
Paul said, I fear! I've got these inward fears about
that. Paul had these natural fears,
the fear of suffering. He didn't want to suffer any
more than we did. The Lord Jesus appeared to him
one night at Corinth and said, Paul be not afraid. No man's
gonna sit on you to hurt you. Why did the Lord have to tell
him that? Because he was afraid. He was afraid. When they come
to cut our heads off like they do over in the Arab countries,
I bet you some of us will tremble a little bit, won't we? We won't
be near as bold as we are now being a thousand miles away,
I fear. Vidings without and fears within. Isn't this man here a good example
for us? He's an example of what we're
to believe. We're to believe the doctrine
that Christ gave him to give to us, but he's an example in
every way of this concern that he had for the churches. That which cometh upon me daily,
the care of the churches. And let me ask you this question,
in the light of this man, fearing for the churches in his day,
are you concerned with the church of Jesus Christ in our day? You say, Bruce, I'm very concerned
with this local church. I pray for it all the time. That's
wonderful, and that's one of the meanings of this, but it's
more than that. It's not just here. Are you concerned
with the church of Jesus Christ all over this world at this present
time? Are you concerned about the Lord's
family, His blood-bought ones, His loved ones? Do you think
about the church in our day and her condition and her trials
and her fears that she's going through? You go somewhere all
the time. I know you're concerned because
I talk to you. We hear of someone falling. When
Don was preaching last night on Lot, my heart just went out. Lot! Can you imagine Abraham
weeping of the night, thinking about his brother in Christ,
down in Sodom? How do we feel, brothers and
sisters, in this day in which we live, about the condition
of the church? Are we burdened with it? Do we
have these inward fears and concerns about it? This man is our example,
isn't he? He's our example. Oh, I fear. You and I have our own fight-ins
without, don't we? It's not resorted into physical
altercations, and hopefully it won't, but we have our outward
problems, don't we? Mainly it's somebody butting
in line in front of us down at bank drive up or something. Makes
us shame of ourselves, don't it? Or it's our physical pains,
and we have them. I know we have them, but we have
our inward fears too, don't we? And that's what I want to look
at just for a few minutes. We have our inward fears, as
well as the apostle Paul had his. What is the root of our
inward fears? Before we look at some of them,
what's the root of them? Some would say, well, it's our
flesh. It's always our flesh. We have fears because of the
weakness of our flesh. Well, flesh is weak, isn't it? Flesh never wants any opposition.
Flesh never wants to be persecuted. Flesh wants everything to go
easy. And when flesh perceives there's going to be some opposition,
what does it do? It gets scared to death. It gets
afraid. It fears. Sometimes unbelief,
sometimes doubts bring our fears. Peter was walking on the water
going to the Lord Jesus and he began to look at the waves and
they were boisterous and the scripture says he was afraid. He saw the waves and he was afraid.
And the Lord Jesus put his finger on the source of his doubts and
fears, didn't he? O thou of little faith, wherefore
did you doubt? His fears became of such little
faith he got his eye off Christ. He got his eye off the Master.
And he said, boy, that next one is going to take me out. And
he became afraid. Sometimes doubts and fears. But
think of this. Unbelief and doubt is not always
the root of fear. Some have no faith at all. They
have no faith at all. They're so full of unbelief they
have no faith at all. They never fear. They have no
doubt at all about anything. And yet they're not afraid. You
know people like that? They're not afraid. It's not
always doubts and the weakness of our faith that makes us fear.
The atheist says there is no God. The atheist says there's
no Christ, there's no salvation, there's no judgment, there's
no resurrection, there's no eternity, and he lives that way without
any fear. And he dies and there's no bands
of fear in his death. One of the atheists, one of the
four horsemen, they call them, I call them the four asses, but
they call them the four horses. One of them just died a year
or so ago, can't even think of his name now. Religious person come out and
said well he recanted at his death and his wife said that's
not so he died in peace He died in peace We want to think sometimes
these atheists they recant They only do when God Awakens them
to give them some hell before they get there, but most of them
die in peace why they have no faith They have no doubt And
yet they have no fear. So it's not always a lack of
faith. It's not always weak faith and
doubt that brings the fear, is it? Sometimes, brothers and sisters,
and this is a mystery, sometimes with the Lord's people, faith
is their root of fear. It's because they do believe
that conjures up this heart fear within. Do you believe in God's
election? You say, oh Bruce, I believe
in God's election. I absolutely do. There's no doubt
in my mind. God not only has the right to
do that, but He did do it. And He's free in it. And before
time, He He put the names of all His elect down in the Lamb's
Book of Life and predestinated them unto the adoption of children.
Oh, I believe that with all my heart! Do you ever have any fears
about it? Concerning yourself? Do you ever have doubt, maybe,
I'm not one of them? If you didn't believe it so strongly,
would you have any doubts about it? Would you have any fears
or concerns about it? There's multitudes of people
this morning in churches. They're very religious. They
have no fear at all when it comes to God's electing grace. Because
they don't believe it. Ask them. But you do, don't you? Why? Because you believe it. And you believe He's free in
it. And the choice is settled and it's His choice. And the
number will never be added to or diminished. And you believe
that. And because you believe that
and the stronger you believe that, sometimes the more fears
within your heart is conjured up about it. Let me ask you this. Do you believe
in God's everlasting love for His people? She said to me one
time, she said, don't you believe God loves everybody the same?
No. Do you believe that God has a
people that He has loved from eternity? I have loved you with
an everlasting love. That's the love we read about
in Romans 8, isn't it? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Nothing! Never! You believe that,
don't you? And because you believe that
with all your heart, you have some fears about that. Does He
love me? Does He love me? The world has no problem with
the love of God, does it? Why? Why wouldn't He love me?
Why wouldn't He look at me? You ladies have been trying to
tell me I'm perfect. You've got a lot of work to do, I'm telling
you, because I know better. I know better. Don't you wonder,
don't you stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
and wonder how he could love you? And believing that he has the
people that he's always loved and will never cease to love,
doesn't that have a tendency to conjure up some fears in your
heart? Me? Me? Do you believe this? That God
must call a person to come to Himself. That except God call
a man effectually and irresistibly, he cannot and will not come to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, Bruce, I find that in
the scripture. I believe that and I experience
that in my own heart. Effectual calling is a necessity. And don't you ever have some
fears conjured up in you because of it? Whether or not you've
been called that way? Don't you ever wonder if this
is a work that you've begun? It's just a work of nature, and
you've started it? Oh, fears about this. If you
and I just believe that God gave everybody a chance, and it was
all up to you. Now don't conjure up any fears
in my heart. He conjured up a bunch of pride.
Self-salvation. But because you believe you must
be called effectually... Oh, have I been called? Have
I been called? You believe this morning that
everyone who is called is justified. And he has all his sins remitted.
And he's accepted of God and he has everlasting life and he's
never condemned. And he has a righteousness given
him. He's accepted in the Beloved
and he's well-pleasing to the Father. You believe this? And
don't this conjure up some fear in your heart? And yet it's because you really
believe these truths that these certain fears arise. and it's
concerning to you. And you say, "'Tis a point I
long to know. Am I His or am I not? Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His? Am I His by election? Am I His
by redemption? Am I His by calling? Am I His?" Do you think God's people ever
fear because of these things. They believe the Lord has a peculiar
people he's redeemed and called from this perishing world. And this dries their hearts. Because they believe there are
certain marks about these people. They love him. They follow him
wherever he goes. They'll never leave Him. I don't say these fears are always
right, but you have them, don't you? Maybe not so much after
you grow older in the Lord, but if you don't have them now, you've
had them. You've had them. Do you ever have inward fears
about the new birth and whether or not you've been born of God? And these fears spring out of
knowing the necessity of the new birth and believing it. You
believe those who are born of God are truly sons of God. They're
created anew and they're holy and they're in the image of Jesus
Christ. And because you believe these
truths, fear springs up in your heart. You believe God's people
are praying people, don't you? You do. You believe God's people
are praying people and yet you find yourself so cold and struggling
in prayer and you find it so difficult to pray and this fear
springs up. Am I one of His? Why this long
cold winter in my soul? You believe that every believer
will persevere until the end of his life? And this belief
causes you some inward fear because you are afraid that you're going
to quit believing. You ever get afraid you're going
to quit believing? You ever had a time when you can't believe?
Wasn't that what you said the other night? You can't believe?
You try to muster it up and you can't? Sometimes the Lord leaves
us on purpose to ourselves to teach us without me you can do
nothing. We can't muster faith. We can't
maintain faith. We use all the means that He's
pleased to give us of reading and praying and gathering and
worship and listening. But sometimes He lets us know
that we can't depend upon the means. And we can't even believe,
and it scares us to death. Faith begins with an operation
of God, doesn't it? And it must continue that way.
And when He quits working in us, we'll quit believing. That's what scares us. But here's
what conquers us. He'll never cease to work. He
that's begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Some of you have read Pilgrim's
Progress. Remember when he went into the house of the interpreter
before he went on his pilgrim's journey? And he showed Pilgrim
this fireplace and there was a man with a bucket dipping water
and poured it on the fireplace but the fire didn't go out. And
he was amazed that the fire didn't go out. And he took him around
behind the fireplace and there was a man in shining garments
and he was pouring oil on the fire. You couldn't see him. That's Jesus Christ, isn't it?
And we wonder how we keep believing him. This is why. It's his work. He began the faith
and he maintains the faith in our hearts. And he brings us
to realize that. that it's all up to Him to continue
this work. And boy, until we're really established
with that and in that, it conjures up these fears. Do you believe every child of God
has a hope laid up in heaven? An inheritance that's glorious
and wonderful and eternal and indescribable? Do you believe
that? You believe in heaven? Oh, sometimes
you want to sing that old song with the assurance of hope with
all your heart. Oh, heaven. Land of eternal rest. How I long to be there in His
glorious chair and to lean on my Savior's breast. But because
you believe that so strongly, it conjured up this fear. Heaven? Oh yes, it's a real place! And we'll see the Lord there,
and we'll rest from all our labors. But oh, this fear is apt to arise
with such faith. Me? Mean, low, wretched me? In such a high and holy and wonderful
place with Christ and God and holy angels and the spirits of
just men made perfect? There's people that don't believe
in heaven. They just don't believe in heaven. They live like it.
They die like it. And they have no fears about
it all, because they don't believe it. But you do, don't you? I
believe in heaven, brothers and sisters. I believe in heaven. That's where the Lord is. There
on His throne ruling. And I long to be there, don't
you? But oh, what fear sometimes it conjures up in my soul, because
I believe that. If you're starving to death and
you're dressed in filthy rags and smelled awful, would you
have any fears about knocking at a rich man's door for relief?
Sure you would, wouldn't you? Well, that's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying. Heaven is such a glorious place.
Such a wonderful and holy place. And you believe it so strongly.
Oh me, me, poor miserable me. Mr. Gill said this in closing. He said, though these fears are
not their excellences, but their infirmities. If I've told you
this evening, this morning, that these fears are something to
glory in, I'm sorry, I don't mean that. These are not your
excellencies, these are your infirmities. Yet, this will be
more or less their case till that state takes place when there
shall be no more fightings without, nor fears within. As long as
we're in this life, There'll be some fightings and there'll
be some fears. But thank God there's coming
a day when fightings will cease, and fears also, and we'll rest
from our labors. God bless you.