Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 7. Paul had written a letter to
the Corinthians, it's what we refer to as 1 Corinthians, that
he was very anxious about because he had given them many sharp
rebukes. And he did not know how they
would receive this letter. And he found great comfort when
Titus brought back word of how they had received this letter. in the sight of God might appear
to you. I did this because I cared. Therefore, verse 13, we were
comforted in your comfort, yea, and exceedingly the more joyed
we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you
all. He's the one who brought that letter for Paul, and he
comes back saying he was refreshed by their attitude and by their
demeanor and by their spirit. For, verse 14, if I boasted anything
to him of you, I am not ashamed. But as we spake all things to
you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is
found in truth. And his inward affection is more
abundant toward you, his love, his desire for you is more abundant
toward you, whilst he remembered the obedience of you all. How
with fear and trembling. You received him. I rejoice,
therefore, that I have confidence in you in all things." I've entitled
this message, Fear and Trembling. Fear and Trembling. You know, I come back sometimes
preaching from places and people say, well, how are the services?
And I generally say fine, whether I felt like they were or not.
But I'd like one time to come back and say there was a lot
of fear and a lot of trembling going on. Fear and trembling. Now, this is that fear of God
that is called the beginning of wisdom, this thing of fear
or the fear of God. And the fear of God is not a
fear of his wrath. The demons have that. You believe
there's one God, you do well. The demons fear, the devils fear,
and they tremble at the thought of that. This fear being spoken
of here, Is that respect and regard and reverence and love
and all you have of him that makes you fear his displeasure? You know, when you love somebody,
when you respect somebody, you crave their approval and you
fear their displeasure. And that's what is being spoken
of here with this fear and trembling. And they feared so much regarding
the things Paul had said in this letter. The repentance was so
deep. The sorrow was so real that it produced a physical effect
within. They were actually trembling. Now, fear and trembling. Where the fear of God is, there
is always a fear of sin. Why am I afraid of sin? Because
I'm afraid of God. And there is always a fear, a
genuine fear of looking anywhere but Christ alone. When you fear
God, You know that the only reason he can love you and accept you
and save you is for Christ's sake. And you have a great fear
of looking anywhere but Christ alone. The psalmist said in Psalm
211, that verse of scripture I read at this opening, serve
the Lord with fear. And rejoice with trembling. He said the Lord reigneth, let
the earth tremble When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush,
what did he do? He began to tremble. When God appeared to him on Mount
Sinai, he said, I exceeding fear and quake. Now understand this
about the fear of God. Turn to Jeremiah 33. I think
we're going to see this as we look at these scriptures. Jeremiah
33. It's not just Fear what will happen to you
if you disobey. It's not just fear of punishment.
It's not just fear of chastisement. It's a fear that's produced from
seeing His goodness to you. And from seeing His grace to
you. And seeing His kindness to you. And seeing His mercy
toward you. And it produces your overcome
with that. Now look at what Jeremiah says
here in Jeremiah chapter 33. Verse 8. Verse 7, And I will cause the
captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and will
build them as at the first, and I will cleanse them from all
their iniquity. Notice these are the things God says he's
going to do. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby
they sin against me, and I will pardon all their iniquity, whereby
they have sinned and whereby they transgressed against me.
And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor
before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the
good that I shall do unto them, and they shall fear and tremble
for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure
unto them." I don't remember, and I've read that scripture
before, but I don't ever remember reading it before. That's what
produces this fear and trembling, seeing his goodness and his prosperity. Who does God look to in Isaiah
66? To this man will I look even
to him that's poor and of a contrite, fearful spirit and trembles at
my word. Now, I want to give you six places
in the New Testament where fear and trembling ought to be going
on. Now, it may not be manifest physically. I wish when I was brought, you
know, Paul, one of the scriptures we're going to look at is Paul
when he said, I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling.
When I came preaching, I didn't have some kind of cocksure, arrogant
attitude. I came with weakness and fear
and much trembling. And that ought to be my attitude
every time I preach. And that ought to be your attitude
every time you hear an attitude of fear and trembling because
of the greatness of what we're doing. The gospel of God is being
preached. You know, not everybody gets
this privilege. As a matter of fact, very few do. What a blessing
to hear the truth. Oh, that the Lord would give
us this spirit of fear and trembling. And like I said, it might not
come out on the outside. It might not be shaky. You know,
I guarantee you there's some people who want to start shaking,
show everybody how trembling they are. And that's wrong. You
know, that would be hypocrisy. But I'm talking about on the
inside, this fear and trembling before God. And turn to Acts
chapter 16. Verse 29, then he called for a light. He
was in utter darkness. And he sprang in and came trembling
and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and
said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, let's back up
to verse 22. And the multitude rose up together
against them, speaking of Paul and Silas for preaching the gospel.
And the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to
beat them. And when they laid many stripes upon them, they
cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,
who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the prison,
I'm sure with violence, and made their feet fast in the stalks. Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God. I love to think about this. Can't
you just picture it in your mind? Here they are with these festering
sores on their back from being beat, cast into a filthy prison. I don't see how circumstances
could be any worse. And what are they doing? Praying
and singing praises, and I'm sure these praises come from
the heart. How good the Lord is to us. He's revealed the gospel
to us. He's allowed us to suffer for
his sake. What a privilege of grace that we don't deserve.
Kind of like that martyr who said right before they burned
him at the stake, he said to die for Christ is an honor I
do not deserve. They prayed and they sang praises
to God. And the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations
of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors
were open and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of
the prison awaking out of his sleep. I don't think he heard
Paul and Silas praying and singing praises to God. He was fast asleep. But he saw the prison doors open,
he drew out a sword, and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. And that's a very reasonable
assumption, isn't it? I would see why he would think that.
And he thought, well, I'm going to get killed. But something
very strange happened. He just assumed, I would try
to flee, wouldn't you? I'd try to escape if that happened.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm, for
we're all here. Then he called for a light. I need some light as to why this
is taking place. And he sprang in and came trembling
and fell down before Paul and Silas. And this seems to be a
response to the Lord's goodness, not his wrath, his goodness.
He couldn't believe that this had taken place. He couldn't
believe that they hadn't any of them escaped and they were
all there. And Paul stopped him from killing himself. What's
going on here? This is a response to the Lord's
goodness to him. And he called for a light, sprang
in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and
brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, I don't know exactly when
it was that he realized this, but he did realize it. I'm not
saved. Now what a blessed realization
that is. I'm not saved. Whatever salvation is, I know
I do not have it. I'm not saved. I don't know God. I don't know what it means to
believe. I don't know what it means to repent. I'm not saved. Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been unsaved. This man found out that he was
not saved, and he was absolutely convinced there was nothing he
could do to save himself, and he was afraid. And he came in
trembling. He realized he wasn't saved.
He didn't know God. What must I do to be saved? And I love Paul and Silas' answer. Now, some real sound theologians
would have said, well, you're trying to come into God's presence
on legal ground. You ought to know there's nothing
you can do to be saved. That's wrong. I mean, you're coming to the
Lord on legalism and so on. But Paul didn't say anything
like that, did he? He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord, the one who rules Jesus, the Savior,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, God's
king, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now, he went on to say other
things, but that's all he said. I don't know whether he would
have understood. He told him why I should believe
because of what the Lord did. And let's go on reading. And
he spake unto him the word of the Lord. Verse 32, And they
spake unto him the word of the Lord. They preached the gospel
to him, and to all that were in his house. And he took them
the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and were
baptized he and all his straight way. And when he brought them
into his house, he said, Meet before them and rejoice, believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing in God with all his
house. When he believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, he believed God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? That's what faith is. It's believing
He's God. Acts chapter 9, verse 1, And Saul, Saul of Tarsus,
Yet, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, he went into the high priest and desired of him
letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this
way, this way of grace, this way of Christ, whether they were
men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Turn back to Acts chapter 7,
verse 58, speaking of the stoning of Stephen, and they cast him
out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they
stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit. And he knelt down and cried with
a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And I know
of at least one person for whom that prayer was answered, that
the sin wasn't laid to their charge. And Saul, chapter 8,
verse 1, was consenting unto his death. At that time, there
was a great persecution against the church, which was in Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen
to his barrel and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and
hailing men and women and committing them to prison. Therefore, they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere. Preaching the Word. Chapter 9, And Saul, yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord. Oh, how he hated the Lord Jesus Christ. He went unto the
high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Somebody once
said, he wasn't on his way to a prayer meeting. Now look what takes place. And as he journeyed, he came
near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him
a light from heaven. What he tells about it was a
light above the brightness of the sun. That's the appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ to him. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the bricks. You're hurting yourself like an ox kicking against its
goads. And he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? Now, the first time
I tremble is when I find out I'm not saved. That's a time
to tremble. But the second time is when I
find out who he is. He found out who that I am, Jesus,
whom thou persecutest, and he fell down trembling, Lord, what
will thou have me to do? Turn to Mark chapter 5, verse
33. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him,
and told him all the truth. Now look back up to verse 25. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood twelve years, she had a menstrual disease,
and she had a continual menstrual disease, and you can imagine
What trouble that had brought into her life. She was probably
continually weak. Verse 26 says she had suffered
many things of many physicians. And she'd spent all she had going
to these different doctors and was nothing bettered, but rather
grew worse. Now, what this reminds me of
is someone who gets religious. They have some idea that things
are not right with them. And they start going to many
different physicians, many different physicians, many different ways.
Mr. Just all the different positions
of religion. And what good did it do her?
She didn't grow better in her own understanding, she actually
grew worse. Verse 27. When she'd heard of
Jesus, she heard the gospel, when she heard of Jesus, She
came in the press behind and touched his garment. Where she said, if I may, but
just touch his clothes, I shall be whole. Now, I want you to
think of what a view she had of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somehow,
if I come into contact with him, I shall be whole. I'll be without I'll be perfect
if I can just come into contact with him. And there she goes
crawling on her hands and knees, according to the other camps,
to get to touch the hem of his garment, the bottom of his garment. Verse 29. And as soon as she
touched him straightway, the fountain of her blood was dried
up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. She knew immediately she was
healed. She heard the gospel. And Jesus,
immediately knowing in Himself that virtue, that saving power,
that health had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press
and said, Who touched my clothes? Now, we see the gospel here. Virtue came out. Saving power
came out of the Lord. And I have no doubt that her
disease came into him. That's the gospel of substitution.
My sin became his, his saving power, his righteousness becomes
mine. I know that I'm whole, that I'm
healed of my plague. Verse 30, the Lord asked who
touched my clothes. Now he knew exactly who touched
his clothes, but he was going to have her confess. Verse 31,
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging
thee, and sayest thou, Who touch me? And he looked round about
to see her that had done this thing. Can you imagine him just
locking the eyes with her and how she must have felt? But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done, what was done, not what she did, but what
was done in her came and fell down before Him and told Him
all the truth. Now, here's what happens when
you do some fearing and trembling like this. You will tell all
the truth. You will. If you can tell lies
about what happened God hasn't done anything for you. You'll
tell all the truth. And he said unto her daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. Be whole of thy
faith. What was her faith? If I could
just touch it, I'll be completely whole. Turn to Philippians chapter
2. I've always found a great deal
of comfort in this passage of scripture, but it also scares
me. Verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved. As you've
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation. With fear. And trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Now, the
only way we can know that God has worked in us is if we're
working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, what does he mean when he
says, work out your own salvation? Well, we know what he means in
the context. He says in verse one of chapter two, if there
therefore be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any vows of mercy
fulfilling my joy, that you'd be like minded, having the same
love, being of one accord and of one mind. Work that out. Make
sure this is the way it is. Let verse three, nothing be done
in strife or vainglory. ambition, seeking to gain a following,
but in lowliness of mind, true humility, let each esteem other
better than themselves. Now, you work that out. You work
it out wherever you're wrong there. Work it out. You know,
we work out problems, don't we? We've got plenty of them, too.
We work them out. You work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, with this assurance. It's God that
works in you. both the will and to do His good
pleasure. And if you believe that, you'll
work it out. He said in verse four, look not
every man on his own things, but every man on the things of
others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
All these things he talks about that we're to work out, whatever,
what to work out. It takes effort. It takes diligence.
Work out your own salvation in whatever, in whatever way is
wrong, which is plenty of it, and every one of us. Work it
out. And don't do it with a hard-hearted
attitude, but in fear and trembling. For it's God that works in you,
both to will and to do, is good pleasure. 1 Corinthians 12, or
2, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 2. Verse 1, And I, brethren, when
I came to you, he's talking about his first coming into Corinth
to preach the gospel. I came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God.
I didn't come with dazzling displays of oratory and rhetoric. brilliant
arguments to win you over. I wasn't trying to do that. I
wasn't trying to win you over by my arguments. I wouldn't do
it. He says, for I determined, verse
2, I made this determination not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and him crucified. I determined this is my only
subject. This is all I'm going to preach
on. I'm not going to have any other subject. I love what Charles
Spurgeon said, and this is true. He said, if we confine our preaching
to nothing but the cross and never said anything else. It
would be a widening rather than a narrowing of our ministry.
Do you believe that? Have you seen such glory in the
cross that there's nothing else worth listening to? I determined not to know anything
among you. Save Jesus Christ, who He is, and Him crucified,
what He accomplished by that death. That takes care of everything. And look at His manner of preaching.
He says in verse 3, I was with you in weakness, conscious of my own weakness
and insufficiency and sinfulness. I was in fear. Fear. of misrepresenting God, fear
of being shallow, fear of not having fear. I was in fear and
in much trembling. I don't think there's anything
much more offensive than an arrogant preacher with a cocksure attitude,
bringing down his wisdom to the ignorant masses. That is not
the attitude of a true preacher. He comes like Paul did in weakness
and fear and much trembling. He says in verse four, and my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, trying to use arguments of philosophy and intellectualism
to try to make the gospel more palatable. but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, simply preaching the gospel and depending
on the Holy Spirit to bless it, without trying to help out. And
here's why, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. You see, if I can talk you into
something, somebody else can talk you out of it. But, oh,
if our faith stands in the very power of God, May we always have
this attitude in bearing witness to the truth. First Peter 3 15.
Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a
reason for the hope that's in you. I hope somebody asks me
tomorrow, give me the reason for the hope that's in you. I'd
love to tell them. Well, the only reason is who
Christ is and what he did. It's because he did something
for me as an act of his free and sovereign grace. He did something
for me. He took my sin and my sorrow. He made it his very own. He bore
the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. I want to give
somebody a reason for the hope that's in me. You know what it
says next? Do it with meekness and with fear. That kind of attitude. Ephesians chapter 6. Last one. Ephesians chapter 6. Verse 5. Now he's talking about slaves. Can you imagine what a wretched
life that would be? To be a slave. You couldn't own
anything. You couldn't own property. Your time was not your own. You
belonged to somebody else. You were under their complete
dominion. They had control over you. You
might have a good master, but maybe you don't. Maybe you have
a master that's cruel. What a wretched condition to
be a slave to somebody. He says, slaves, be obedient
to them that are your masters according to the flesh. How? With fear and trembling. That's not fear of them. It's
talking about the fear of God. You serve them in fear and trembling,
in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye
service as men pleasers, not just when they're looking at
you, but when they're not looking at you as the servants of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart. Now, this is what I'm
called upon to do. Whatever it is, whether it's
being a slave, whether it's working for somebody else, whatever I'm
doing, I'm to remember this. I'm to do it with fear and with
trembling. In my fear, my reverence, my
respect for the Lord, in singleness, simplicity of heart, Not with
I servants, not just because men see me and I do well then,
but knowing that the Lord is always seeing me and I am serving
the Lord Christ. You see, there's nothing mundane,
there's nothing insignificant in the believer's life. I mean,
you think of a mundane life as that of a slave, wouldn't you?
But yet, he says, you serve your masters as unto the Lord with
fear and with trembling. Fear and trembling. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't
rejoice. Does it mean we're not happy?
It doesn't mean we, in some respects, are carefree. We are carefree. It doesn't mean that a sense
of humor is wrong. I say this reverently. I debated
on whether to say it, but I say it reverently, but I say it believingly.
The Lord himself has a sense of humor. You say, how can you
say something like that? Well, read the book of Esther.
Read the book of Esther. Haman, he makes him a gallows,
fifty cubits high, to hang Mordecai on. He despised Mordecai. And
he thought he was going to be promoted by the king. And so
Ahasuerus calls him and says, what should we do for the man
that the king delights to honor? And Haman thought it was me. He said, well, you ought to give
him the best robe. You ought to put him on a horse,
and you ought to parade him through the town and have everybody bow
the knee to him. He said, OK, I'll do that, and
go get Mordecai. Now, I like the way the Lord
did that. I just like the way He did that.
And old Haman was down, and then that gallows He made that He
thought Mordecai was going to be hanged on, he was hanged on. Now, in a sense, there's a sense
of divine sense of humor in that, isn't there? And there's a lot
of things like that in the Scripture. Laughter is a blessing. Lynn
says, I don't have a sense of humor. I really do. It's just
not hers. But laughter is a blessing. It's a blessing. See, that's
funny, wasn't it? And we're thankful for that. But all that being said, serve
the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Let's pray.