2 Corinthians chapter 7. If you have a Pew Bible, it's
on page 1244. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 in just
one verse. 2 Corinthians 7 and 5. For when
we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, But we
were troubled on every side. Without were fightings, and within
were fears." I want to begin this message this morning, and
I won't keep you very long, and I want to go back this afternoon
and look at this again. But the Apostle Paul here in
this epistle that he's writing to Galatians tells us some things
about his sufferings. And he describes it to us this
way, we were troubled on every side. And then he says the trouble
came to him in two different ways. He said it came from without
and within. There were findings without and
fears within. Now I want you to take your Bible. So look just a couple of places
that he describes some of his outward sufferings, okay? In
this same book, in the same 2 Corinthians, look over in chapter 4. And look
in verse 8, chapter 4 and verse 8. Without were fightings, there
was trouble on every side. And here in chapter 4 and in
verse 8, and if you know the context of this chapter, the
Apostle Paul was telling about being a preacher. that God had
shined in his heart to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he said, I go preaching
Christ. I'm preaching Christ to a lost
and dying and sinful world. And in that context, look how
he says the world has received him. Look how society treated
him. In verse 8, he begins the very
same thing again. We are troubled on every side. You mean a preacher of the gospel?
Proclaiming the way of salvation to a lost and dying world, and
yet he's troubled on every side? Yet we're not distressed. We
are perplexed, sometimes confused, but not in despair. Persecuted,
but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
Always bearing a bout 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. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you." You know there was something about
these apostles. as a group of men that were like nobody else
in this world. The Lord called them not only
to preach His gospel, but He called them to suffer persecution.
He told them when He was ready to send them out, He said, now
listen, you guys don't understand what a mess I'm getting you into,
the danger I'm putting you into. He said, they're going to put
you out of the synagogue. They're going to whip you. They're
going to falsely accuse you. And there comes a time that they're
going to kill you thinking that they're doing God's service.
You're going to be like lambs in the midst of wolves. They're
going to hate you simply because you love Me. And I've called
you to go and preach My Gospel. Now, I want to show you another
place just over here in this same book. Look in 2 Corinthians
11. And here in verse 23. 2 Corinthians
11 and verse 23. Here's what he says here. He's
speaking about outward fightings. You'll read the book of Acts
when the Apostle Paul first came to Macedonia. He said, When I
came to Macedonia, I had no rest in my flesh. With outward fightings. And when he first came to Macedonia,
the whole city was in a nut roll. He went into a man's house by
the name of Jason. He and Silas and the whole town
followed them there and assaulted the house of Jason. And took
them out and was going to whip them and wanted Paul and Silas
to stone them to death. Fightings without. Now I've never
suffered that. Have you? I don't know anything
at all about that. And many of the early Christians
knew nothing about that. But boy, this man knew something
about it. He was a minister of Christ. And he said, I bear in
my body the marks of Jesus Christ, sufferings of Christ. And look
what he says in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. Are they ministers
of Christ? Talking about these false apostles
that profess to be. I speak as a fool, I am more.
In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths often, 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, and not in the day
have I been 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,
in pearls in the sea, pearls among false brethren, in weariness
and painfulness and watchings often, in hunger and thirst and
fastings often, and cold and nakedness, besides those things
that are without, all these fightings and struggles and persecutions
are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all
the churches. without fighting. And then he says, within were
fears. Within his heart, within his spirit, he entertained some
fear. Now you wouldn't think an apostle
of this caliber, who knew the decrees of God, knew the Lord
Jesus, knew His promises, would have any doubts or fears about
Him at all. But he was a man like us, wasn't
he? And he said, we have these fears within. Let me tell you
some of these fears, just for a minute before we get into our
fears. He was riding to this same church, this Corinthian
church, and man was it in a mess, in a mess. It was in such a mess
that the apostle wrote a letter to them that just broke his heart
to have to ride. And in that letter he confronted
them with, first of all, moral issues. Moral issue. I don't know of a church, I know
of several churches in our day, I don't know of a single church
that was in the mess that this church here was in. Listen to
what he said in his letter. He's writing this letter to them,
the first thing he said, I fear. In chapter 12 verse 20, I fear.
I've got these fears in my heart. I fear when I come, when I come
to you, I shall find you such as you would not. lest there
be debates among you, and enviums among you, and wrath, and strifes,
and backbiting, and whispers, and swellings, and turmoils. And when I come to you, God will
humble be among you, and I shall bewail many that have sinned
already, and have not repented of their uncleanness, and fornication,
and lasciviousness which they have committed." Now that made
him afraid. That made him afraid. He saw
the moral issue within the church. And it not only broke his heart,
it made him afraid. That made me afraid too, wouldn't
it you? Some of you fall into fornication. Some of you fall
into adultery. Some of you start backbiting,
causing turmoil in the church. That made me afraid. I fear,
he said, I fear for the condition that you all are in. Then he
confronted them with the doctrinal issues. Boy, they had some of
them too. Here's what he said in 2 Corinthians 11 in verse
2. I am jealous over you with a
godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But he said, I fear.
I fear for you, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ." He said, I fear. I am carrying this fear
for you around in my heart. And this is my fear, that Satan
is going to get into your mind and corrupt your mind. from the
simplicity that is in Christ. That is a wonderful word, the
simplicity in Christ. It means singleness, the unmixedness
that is in Jesus Christ. He is all, isn't He? He is all. If I had one word to describe
the singleness of Christ, it would be this, Christ is all. He is all in salvation, isn't
He? And Paul said, I'm afraid Satan's
going to come to you and convince you that there's something else
you need besides Christ. And this word also means plainness. From the plainness that's in
Christ. Some man called it the unperplexity. I don't know if there is such
a word. The unperplexity of Christ. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified,
not with wisdom of words, You don't have to have your dictionary
to say it and understand my preaching. I preach Christ plainly. Christ in Him crucified, not
with wisdom of words. Boy, here's the way to preach
Christ. You are complete in Him. That's plain, isn't it? Christ
is all and you are complete in Him. And Paul said, I'm afraid
that you're going to leave this simplicity and have your minds
corrupted. And you'll find the fears that
he had as he wrote to these other churches. He wrote to the church
of Galatia and he said, I'm afraid for you. I'm afraid for you. And here's what's got me concerned
about you. You're leaving Christ and going
back to Moses. You leave in the grace of Christ
and go in and trust in the works of the law for your acceptance
with God. I am afraid of you and for you
lest I bestow labor upon you in vain. I am afraid. And look here at another fear.
I will show you this in the Scripture. Look in 1 Thessalonians chapter
2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Yeah, maybe it ain't there. Maybe
it's back over in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look here how he says this. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing
among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was
with you in weakness." Boy, this man was bodily weak. And you
know what he said about his speech? It's contemptible. He stuttered. He stammered along. Sometimes
his sentence was broken, and you know these philosophers hated
him. They said, would you listen to that man? Listen to how plain
he is. He uses no fancy words. His bodily
presence, look how weak he is and bent over he is. I was with
you in weakness." He said, I don't deny that. And look at this,
and in fear. I was with you in fear. And in much trembling. And my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Why?
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. Salvation is not in men's wisdom.
We don't come to believe in Christ because somebody's talked us
into it. We believe in Christ because the Holy Spirit does
a work in our hearts. God grants us faith. We believe
in Christ because the Spirit reveals Christ to our heart.
It's a matter of the power of God, isn't it? The power of God. That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And Paul said,
I was there in fear. Man, when I come to you, I came
to you and fear within my soul." Why was he afraid? Why did he
fear? Well, I'll tell you one of the reasons he feared. He
knew the glory of Jesus Christ. He knew what a wonderful person
He was. And he wanted to set Him forth
as He should. Isn't that not a concern of us
when we testify to people, when you, brethren, teach to us? What
is your desire? You feel it in your heart. Christ
is a glorious Redeemer and I want to tell people the truth about
Him. I want to represent Him as He really is. Paul said, I
fear. I fear. I'll tell you another reason
he feared. He feared for the souls of those he preached to.
He trembled for his hearers that they would believe the Gospel
and be saved. You know what he said about his people in Romans
9. He said, I could wish that myself
were cursed for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. That's the burden he had. My heart's desire and prayer
for them is they might be saved. And when he went out to preach
to these people, man, he wept and he feared and he prayed for
them that they might be saved. You can go, I bet you, to wherever
he was staying before he went to the synagogue to preach in
some little room or somebody's garage where they kept their
mules or horses or donkeys. And I bet you would have heard
him weeping. I bet you when he was thinking
about a text to preach on, I bet he would have said, Oh Lord,
bless this to their hearts. Bring these men to believe on
Your Son. Don't you think he was doing
that? I bet he was doing that. And when he got up to preach,
the burden and fear of his heart was, somebody's going to believe
what I'm saying. He feared for those who were
in opposition to the Gospel of Christ. Boy, he wept when he
reminded us of the enemies of the cross, didn't he? He feared for the souls of men
when he thought about the judgment 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. He feared when he thought
of the judgment to come, for men so. And Paul had this natural
fear that we all had. We've all got it. That's a fear
of torment. A fear of persecution. Nobody wants that and the Apostle
Paul didn't either. The fear of torture. And when
they whipped you with these rods, sometimes you died. He didn't
want to be whipped. He didn't want to be stoned.
And he feared for that. One night he was praying about
it. He was fearful and the Lord Jesus come to him right here
at Corinth and said, Paul, be not afraid. Why would he have
said that to him if Paul wasn't afraid? And he said, Paul, be
not afraid, but speak and hold not your peace. Preach my gospel,
for I have much people in this place, and nobody is going to
sit on you to hurt you." He was afraid of that, wasn't he? I
would be too. I've often thought what I would
do, and I bet you've thought what you would do, if some of
this ISIS group comes over here and takes our country over, and
they confront you, recant or have your head cut off. And we're
going to give you all night to think about it. What would you
do? I'd spend all night, and I tell
you, I wouldn't be eating, I wouldn't be snacking, I wouldn't be watching
TV. I'd get down to some serious business, wouldn't you? Because
I would be afraid. I'd have some fears within my
heart. We don't know all the findings
that this great man had. We just know he said he bore
in his body the marks of Jesus Christ. We don't know all the
fears that he had within his soul, but I'm sure he had many. And you and I don't have much
fighting without doing it. Most of our fighting comes from
within the family. We're trying to, you know, keep
from fighting, aren't we? We're trying to cut off some
opposition or keep somebody from striking somebody. The most opposition
we face is somebody butting in front of us at the grocery store
or something like that. We don't suffer much fighting
without doing it. And it's just our lot to fall
into that den. I'm thankful for that. But you
know, we've got some fears within, haven't we? Every child of God
has some fears within, within his heart, within their hearts,
the children of God. Let me confront you with just
a few of them this morning, and tonight we'll look at some more
things about the fear within. First of all, I want you to consider
with me this. What's the root? of these inward
fears. What's the cause of them? Somebody
might say, well, it's the weakness of the flesh. The flesh is weak,
so it fears. You know that's true, isn't it?
That's true. The flesh is weak, and it don't
want to be persecuted. It don't want to be shamed. It
don't want to be embarrassed. So sometimes the flesh causes
us to fear. Sometimes fear is of the flesh. Somebody will say, well, it's
unbelief. That's the root of our fears. Doubts is the root
of our fears. You know that's true too. Unbelief
and doubt can cause fear, can't it? Peter was walking on the
water to go to the Lord Jesus, and he saw the wind was boisterous,
and the Scripture says he was afraid. And beginning to sink,
he said, Lord, save me, I perish. And the Lord Jesus stretched
out his hand, and then he tells us the root of his fears. O thou
of little faith, wherefore did you doubt? Peter, this is what
made you afraid, your doubts. Sometimes doubts is the root
of our fears. But think of this, unbelief or
doubts is not always the root of fear. Some people have no
faith at all. And therefore they have no fear,
no faith, no fear. Atheists have no fear, not a
true atheist. The true atheist says there is
no God. And he says there's no Christ
and no salvation and no judgment and no eternity. And you know
he lives that way. He thinks that way and he dies
that way. And David said there's not even
any bands of fear in their death. Why don't they fear when they
die? They have no faith. Paul said all men, some men,
he said, have no faith. Not even a natural faith. God
just leaves them alone. I saw one of the big atheists
a year or so ago. He died. And some professing
Christians would want to interview his wife and ask, what kind of
state of mind was your husband in when he died? Did he recant? Did he repent? Did he seek the
Lord? And she said, I want to answer
this question for all you Christians. My husband died in peace, believing
there was absolutely no God or Jesus Christ or judgment or eternity. He died in peace. Without any
fear? Without any fear. Why didn't
he have any fear? He didn't believe in God. He
didn't believe in Christ. He didn't believe in a salvation.
He didn't believe in a judgment. He didn't believe in that. Where
there's no faith, there's no fear. There's absolutely no fear. But God has children that believe
these great truths. Believe them with all their heart,
and yet they have their inward fears about these things. Sometimes
faith is the root of fear. Now that may sound strange, and
it may not be theologically theologically correct in one sense, but in
the sense that I'm talking about this morning, if you have saving
faith, that saving faith so often produces fear in your heart. Let me give you some examples
and you can prove it to your own conscience. Do you believe
in God's election? Do you believe in God's electing
grace? You say, well, Bruce, I believe that with all my heart.
I know it in the Scriptures. I've heard it and I've read it.
Before time, before the world ever was, God in His sovereign
free will chose a great number out of Adam's race that He was
going to save. I believe that with all my heart.
Do you ever have any fears about that? Do you? Yeah, you say sometimes. I wonder if I'm one of them.
Well, if you didn't believe it, you'd never fear that, would
you? There's a lot of people, believe you me, that don't believe
in God's election, and they don't have any fear about it either.
But you do. And when did this fear arise?
When you believed it. When you believed it. Do you believe in God's everlasting
love for His people? I had a lady tell me one time,
she said, Bruce, don't you believe God loves everybody the same?
And I said, no, I don't. No, I don't. And she said, I
do. And you know, she has no fear
at all, whether God loves her or not, because she believes
God loves everybody the same. But if you're here this morning
and you believe that God has this everlasting, unconditional,
unchanging love for His own in Christ, then you're going to
have some fears about that. And one of the fears you're going
to have is this, does He love me? Does He love me? That gets particular, doesn't it?
That gets real to the heart, doesn't it? I tell you, the love
of God is amazing, is it not? I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me! That's
what the true believer says. How could He love me? Those who don't believe in this
everlasting love that God has for His people, they have no
problem with that. He just loves everybody the same.
Why wouldn't He love me anyway? Do you believe that when Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, suffered and died on Calvary's tree, His
blood atoned for all of those whose sins He bore? Do you believe that? Do you believe
that Jesus loved you and gave Himself for you? Or one says
this, I believe Jesus suffered and atoned for everybody without
exception. then you're the one who should
fear. You're the one who should fear. Because if He gave His
blood to atone for everybody without exception, when so many
people are in hell suffering for their own sins, then here,
you may be there soon. What does His sufferings and
blood have to do with the atonement of your sins? If He did no more
for you than He did Judas who is in hell, It's believing that when Jesus
Christ died upon the cross, He purged my sin away. He was punished
for my sin. And I'm telling you, when you
believe that, there are some doubts sometimes. There are some
fears arise in your heart. Christ really accomplished something.
Did He do it for me? Died He for me who caused His
pain? If I believe that Jesus Christ
died for everybody without exception, and He made atonement for everybody
without exception, then I've got no fear. I've got no fear. But when it gets down to a particular
boy, when it gets down to him really suffering and really atoning
for sins of some people, there's some fears, isn't there? Fears
within. Fears within. He has come to save His people. Do you believe that God must
call a person to salvation? Do you believe that the Holy
Spirit does not give this personal and effectual call to all? Do you believe that He must and
does call His people with an effectual calling for them to
come to Christ? Oh, you say, Bruce, I know this
is true. I've read it in His Word, and I feel it in my heart. But don't you believe that that's
why you have this inward fear about it? Has He called me? I know a general influence will
not save a man, brothers and sisters. It won't save a man.
If the Lord just comes and knocks at your heart and goes on about
His way and said, I gave you an opportunity, you'll die lost.
He must so work in your heart to bring you to Jesus Christ
that you may feel your need of Him to save you. And when you
believe that and you feel the necessity of that, you're going
to have some fear about it all, aren't you? Creeping up in your
heart. Do you believe this, that all
who truly believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, I mean believe
with all their hearts that they are saved? Do you believe that
all who actually believe in Jesus Christ have their sins forgiven? Do you believe that all that
believe in Him are not condemned but they have everlasting life
and shall never perish? Do you believe that? You say,
Bruce, I believe that. I believe it. I believe it. Oh, the preciousness of faith.
But it's believing this that makes these fears arise in your
heart. He that believeth shall never
be ashamed. And yet you feel this shame sometime
bubbling up, don't you? And what does that do? Create
this fear. Am I ashamed? The Scripture says, Whosoever
believeth in Him shall not be ashamed. And yet I feel this
shame bubbling up. Do I believe? And yet, it is not because you really
believe these truths, is it not because you really believe these
truths, that certain fears arise in your minds concerning your
interest in these things. Boy, these things are precious,
and you believe them, and you believe them so strongly. Sometimes
you want a saving interest so bad that these fears rise up
in your heart. If you didn't believe the truth,
you'd have no fears concerning your interest in it, believe
you me. Your fears rise because you believe these truths. Newton
says it like this in his little song, "'Tis a point I long to
know. Oft it causes anxious thought. There's something going on in
me that causes me anxious thoughts. And it's this, do I love the
Lord or no? Am I His? Am I His by electing
love? Am I His by redemption? Am I
His by calling? Am I His by faith in Him? Am
I His or am I not? I know people are His. Am I one
of them? Do you think God's people ever
have fears about such things? They believe He has a peculiar
people that He's redeemed and called them. And this tries their
hearts. This tries their hearts. They know those people have certain
marks about them. They're zealous of good works.
They love the Lord. They love His people. They follow
the Lamb wherever He goes. And sometimes they fear their
saving interest in this. I didn't say these fears were
right. I'm not saying these fears are right. But I'm saying they
have them. And I'm saying one of the roots
of these fears is this. Faith. Faith. You've got a struggle in your
soul, dear child of God, that you never had before He saved
you. There's a struggle in there, isn't there? Struggling going
on now that wasn't there before. You've got another army that's
come to occupy, and these two armies in you are struggling. And because you truly believe,
you have these fears, fears within. You ever have inward fears about
the new birth? and whether or not you've been
born of God. These fears sprang from your
faith. They sprang from your faith. You know, you believe
the reality and necessity of the new birth. You believe those
who are born again are truly sons of God. And they're created
anew in the image of Christ. And from this belief sprang certain
fears about whether you've been born again or not. You believe
God that His people are a praying people and God hears their prayers. But you find prayers so difficult
and sometimes impossible and hard. And your heart has these fears
arising, am I even one of His since I have such a difficulty
praying? You believe that every true believer
in Jesus Christ will persevere to the end of his life. Do you
believe that? Do you believe that? Are you
here this morning and you believe the Bible truth that every true
believer in Jesus Christ will continue to believe until the
end of their life? Do you believe that? If you do,
it's going to create this fear in you that maybe you're going
to quit believing. Do you ever have that fear? Oh,
I know God's people never quit believing. I know they'll believe
right up until they take their last breath, but I fear that
I'm going to quit. I fear my faith is temporary.
I fear it's man-made. I fear my faiths of myself. Do
you ever have that fear? And it's because you believe
that every true believer will not cease to believe. But in
believing that so strongly, You fear you're not one of them.
See the gist of what I'm saying? Faith itself is the root of these
fears that's within. You believe every child of God
has this hope laid up for him in heaven. And what is that hope? That inheritance. Inheritance
that's incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away. A glorious
and wonderful inheritance that's almost indescribable. And you
can sing, at least you want to. You want to sing with a full
assurance of hope, O land of rest. For thee I sigh, when will
the moment come when I shall lay my armor by and dwell at
peace and home. Oh, home. Oh, heaven, sweet heaven,
land of eternal rest, how I long to be there in His glorious chair
and lean on my Savior's breast. But you just can't sing that
with a full assurance of hope as you want to. Why? Because
you believe in it so much. You think, how in the world is
some poor me some weak and lowly me, hope for such a glorious
and eternal inheritance as that." These things are wonderful, aren't
they? And when we believe them, I've often said this, if the
Lord lets me in heaven, He lets me at His feet, He's never going
to hear the last of me. He's not. I heard Brother Scott
Richardson preach a message one time. He said, they shall see
His face. I think it's Revelation 22.4.
They shall see His face. And one of his points was this,
they'll be surprised. They'll be surprised. They'll
be happily surprised. Why? Because it's more glorious
than they even believed. To think that you, poor, wretched
Jew, should have an eternal inheritance in the Father's house? Why, to
believe such a thing is glorious, isn't it? And to believe such
a thing produces these fears in your heart. Well, I can't
make it to that place. Not for me. What if you was out
here and you were homeless? And you were wretched and in
poverty and your clothes were filthy? You were starving to
death? You walk by this big mansion
up on the hill and somebody says, there's a rich man lives there
and he can supply your need if he will. Wouldn't you have any
apprehension at all? Wouldn't there be any fear at
all stirred up in your heart about going and knocking on that
man's door? You are the way you look, the
way you smell in your poverty and for me and you, To think
we have a hope in the Father's house to believe such a thing.
Oh, that's enough to produce some Edward Fears, isn't it? Mr. Gill said this, Though these fears are not in
themselves excellent. Boy, they're not excellent. We
don't brag about them, do we? But they are the infirmities
of the saints. Yet this will be more or less
their case. They're going to bear these fears,
fears within. That's going to be their case.
That's their infirmities. Until that state comes and takes
place when there shall be no more fightings without. nor fears
within. Then they shall rest from their
labor, and fighting and fearing will be no more." Fears without. Well, there's the root of them,
and this afternoon we're going to look at some of the remedies
for these fears that's within. And I hope you can stay around
and listen for that.