Four Great Fears Removed

I want you to take your Bibles
and open them, please, to the Book of Romans, the 8th chapter. I'll be speaking to you on this
subject. Four Fears Removed. Four Fears Removed. Now, before
I get to the 8th chapter of Romans, over in the Book of Ecclesiastes,
chapter 1, verse 18, Solomon wrote these words, He that increaseth
knowledge increaseth sorrow. In much wisdom is much grief. Let me illustrate that. When
Isaiah saw firsthand the glory and holiness of God, he said
in Isaiah 6, when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I lifted up his train filled
the temple. and the cherubims and seraphims
about the throne of God covered their faces and cried, Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. And Isaiah said, I cried, O woe
is me, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. O woe is me, when he saw the
holiness of God. Now Isaiah was a prophet of Isaiah
was a preacher, Isaiah was a man who believed God, and yet as
he increased in knowledge of the holiness of God and of the
power of God, he also increased in a knowledge of his unworthiness
and his sinfulness, and his heart was filled with great fear. And
he cried, Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips. Job had this
same experience. If you read the last few chapters
of the book of Job, you'll find Job saying this, Lord, I've heard
of you by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. God had revealed to Job his sovereignty,
his power, his greatness, his omnipotence, his control over
all things. Yea, he said, Job, have you entered
into the treasures of the snow? Have you entered into the treasures
of the rain? Do you know who teaches the bird
how to build a nest? Do you know these things? God
spake to Job out of the whirlwind, and when Job saw the power of
God and the holiness of God, he cried, O God, I have heard
of you by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeeth
thee, wherefore I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. I have spoken once, twice, yea,
three times, but I'll never speak again. I hate myself. When Job increased in the knowledge
of God's power and God's holiness, he also increased in the knowledge
of his unworthiness, and it struck great fear and trembling in his
heart. Our Lord one day visited the
disciples down by the seashore. They had been fishing, caught
nothing. The Master asked them, Have you caught anything? They
said, No. He said, Cast the net over there, and they did. and
they pulled out a great net full of fish. And Peter, seeing this
demonstration of our Lord's absolute sovereignty even over the fish
of the sea, his absolute control over even the fish in the sea,
you know what he cried? He looked at the Master and said,
Lord, depart from me. I am a sinful man. That doesn't
sound like impulsive impudent Peter, does it? But that's what
he said when he saw the power of Christ, when he saw the omniscience
and omnipotence of the Master. It struck fear in his heart.
In much wisdom is much fear. He that increases knowledge,
knowledge of God, and God's holiness and God's sovereignty and God's
righteousness and God's wisdom, is going to also increase in
fear of the Lord. I know that's not What you hear
today, and I know people are saying the older they get, the
holier they get, and the more righteous they get, and the better
they get, and the closer they walk with God. But that was not
the experience of the disciples, nor the people of God. The more
they saw of God's holiness, the more they trembled, the more
they feared God. Also, Paul, as he grew in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, he also grew in
fear. At the beginning of his ministry,
he said this, I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. I persecuted
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said as
he began his ministry. I'm not worthy. A little later
he wrote these words, I'm less than the least of all the saints.
He's growing in a knowledge of his own unworthiness. And before
he died, in one of his last epistles, he wrote to Timothy from the
prison in Rome, and he said, This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ is coming to the
world to save sinners, of whom Paul is the chief, the chief
of sinners. Here is a man who began the journey
talking about not being worthy to carry the message. Who is
sufficient for these things, he said. And later on he said,
pick out the least sane in the church, and I am less than the
least But before he went to be with God, after seeing God move
and God work, and God revealing himself to him in his greatness
and power, Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. The chief of
sinners. And then you know John, the beloved
disciple, who leaned upon the breast of the Lord at the Last
Supper? This same John, now an old man with white hair and wrinkled
face, on the Isle of Patmos, exiled out to the Isle of Patmos
after many years out there on this island alone. Not alone,
in fellowship with his Lord. Christ appeared to him, and this
man who leaned on Christ's breast at the last supper, this intimate,
personal disciple, when he saw the Lord, he fell at his feet
as a dead man. As a dead man. The more a true
believer, now you listen to me, the more a true believer learns
of God's sovereignty, God's omnipotence, God's omniscience, God's power,
God's holiness, God's immaculate righteousness. The more he learns
of that, the more he sees of his own sinfulness, the more
he sees his inability, his unworthiness, and this increased knowledge
brings about certain fears. John Newton, who wrote our favorite
hymn, Most of you would say your favorite hymn was Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. This
same man, John Newton, also wrote this hymn. "'Tis a point I long
to know. Oft it gives me anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord, or no? Am I his, or am I not?" This
is a man who has grown in grace. a man who has grown in the knowledge
of God, but also a man who has grown in the knowledge of himself.
He that increases spiritual wisdom also increases fear and sorrow
and grief. In much wisdom is much grief. Now I'm going to point out four
fears that are present in the heart of every believer. I believe
this is true. Paul deals with them here in
Romans 8. If you'll take your Bible, we'll deal with these
four fears. Here are the four fears. There
is, first of all, the fear of Satanic opposition. Secondly,
there is the fear of sin. Thirdly, there is the fear of
final condemnation. Fourthly, there is the fear of
falling from grace. You say, those things don't bother
me. Well, please don't admit Please don't admit it. Because
Peter, the Apostle Peter, was attacked by Satan. Our Lord said
to Peter, Satan hath desired thee that he might sift thee
as wheat. And then sins? David said, My sins are ever
before me. Aren't you ever concerned about
your sins? And final condemnation? When you read Matthew 7 and you
hear religious people stand before the Lord and say, Lord, we preached
in your name, and that's what I'm doing. And Lord, we cast
out devils in your name, and that's something I've never done.
And Lord, we've done many wonderful works in your name, and that's
something you'd like to think that we're doing. And yet our
Lord said to them, Depart from me, I never knew you. And that
doesn't bother you when you read that? That doesn't trouble you?
That doesn't cause you to say, as all the disciples said at
the Last Supper when Christ said, One of you is going to betray
me, and every one of them said, Lord, is it I? Is it I? Would you have been one that
didn't even ask? So cocksure and so presumptuous? Well, there's
a great danger in presumption, a greater danger than in the
position of doubt and fear of falling away. Some have, and
the Lord lists them in the scriptures. Well, let's go back and deal
with these fears one at a time. In much wisdom is much fear,
and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. First of all
is the fear of Satanic opposition. Now, my friend, Satan is a very
real enemy. Paul wrote about him in 2 Corinthians
11.3. Listen to what he said. But I fear, I fear, lest by any
means, as Satan beguiled Eve through his deceit, so your hearts
and your minds shall be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ, corrupted by whom? By Satan. Adam and Eve fell under
the onslaught of his deceit and subtlety and craftiness. They
were destroyed, and all of their children were destroyed by Satan's
deceit. Job trembled and suffered under
a personal visitation by Satan. Peter fell beneath his onslaught. Peter, our Lord predicted. He
said, Satan is going to trouble you and try you, and he did,
and Peter denied his Lord. Paul said, I would have come
to you, but Satan hindered me. And then our Lord himself was
sorely tried by Satan on the Mount of Temptation. He's so
crafty. We don't know how crafty he is.
He's so deceitful. He's a real person. He's a power,
he's spiritual wickedness in high places. He's the prince
of the piety air, he's the adversary. He goes about God's head like
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and our Lord taught
us to pray, deliver us from the evil one. He understands human
nature better than human nature understands itself. Satan has
been in the tempting business a long time, over 6,000 years,
and next to God, He knows more about human nature than anyone
else. He's the best student of human
nature, and he knows where to touch us, and he knows when to
touch us, and he knows how to touch us. Oh, how fearful to
wrestle with such power. And that's what the Apostle said,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers and rulers of the darkness. You don't fear that?
That doesn't trouble you? Well, it did Paul. And yet Paul
answered this fear, he dealt with this fear. Look at Romans
8, verse 31. Paul said, What shall we say
to these things? If God be flawless, who can be
against us? There is your answer. When you
are fearful of satanic opposition, read this portion of scripture
right here. Our Lord said, If he is flawless, who? Whether
it be Satan or whether it be the world or whether it be powerful,
ecclesiastical leaders, or whether it be the rabble of the street,
who can be against us? What shall we say to these things?
What things? Well, back just above that, in
verse 28, the scripture says, And we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, who are called according
to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, and whom he did predestinate
he called, and whom he called he justified, and whom he justified
he glorified. Now, what shall we say to these
things? Well, here's what we say. If
God be for us in covenant mercies, if God be for us in his divine
purpose, if it please God from eternity past to make us his
people, if he set his love upon us and made us an object of his
affection in divine covenant mercies, who can be against Satan
cannot be against us. He can only do to us what God
permits him to do for our good, as in the case of Job, as in
the case of Peter, and for our Lord's glory. Now read on. What
shall we say to these things? If God be for us in covenant
mercies, who can be against us, for he spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Christ
freely give us all things. If God be for us in covenant
mercies, and if God be for us in a substitutionary sacrifice
through the blood of his own Son, then who can be against
us? What does it matter who is against
us? The forces of evil cannot block the divine purpose of God. The forces of evil cannot frustrate
the eternal purposes of God. If God is for us in divine mercies,
then all of the universe against us wouldn't matter, because his
will shall be done. And if God is for us in substitution
and sacrifice, the forces of evil cannot block or make void
or frustrate a divine purchase. What Christ has bought, Christ
will have. The Father purposed it, and the
Son purchased it. And Paul answers the question,
don't be afraid, who can be against us? God is for us, and Christ
died for us. Here is the second fear. Fear
of satanic opposition, and he is very real, but fear of our
sins. Are you not concerned about your
sins? Do they not trouble you? Do you
not tremble as you think about your rebellion against God, your
identification with Adam in the fall, your identification with
all the rebels who crucified the Master? Your nature, your
thoughts, your imagination, the evil that goes on in your heart,
your inability to keep God's holy law, doesn't that bother
you? It did, David. He said, My sins are ever before
me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, O Lord, and done this evil in thy sight. And my sins
trouble me. They cause me to weep, and they
cause me to mourn, and they cause me to grieve. And Paul said that.
He said, With the heart I delight in the law of God. But in the
flesh, those things that I would not do, I do, and those things
I would do, I do them not. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death?" Fear of sin. The Apostle removes that fear
for every true believer. When he says, look down at verse
33, "...who shall lay anything, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justify it. Shall not God charge us? No,
it is God who justifies us. There will not one charge of
sin be brought against one believer in Christ because God has justified
every believer. You know what justified means?
I think one of the best old-time definitions of justified is this. God looks on me in Christ just
as if I had never That's what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians
5.19, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing,
not charging their sins unto them. In Colossians 1 he writes,
in Christ we are unblameable, we are unreprovable, and God
says, I'll remember their sins no more. Well, preachers, shall
not the law charge us? Surely the law will sit in judgment
against us, no sir, because we have a righteousness in Christ,
Paul wrote in Romans 3, 19-21, without the law. Not without
obedience to the law, because Christ rendered that, but without
our producing it. We can't, we haven't been able
to, we never will be able to, not as long as we're in this
body. But Christ came down here as a man and worked out for us
a perfect righteousness. and before the law we are holy
and without blame. And Jude says in verse 24 that
he is going to present us in God's presence, holy, pure and
without sin. So there is no fear of sins if
we are in Christ. Our sins are put away. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And that's the fear of final
condemnation. The most dreadful fear that can
possibly grip the heart of a reasonable thinking individual is that terrible
fear of being finally condemned at the judgment bar of God Almighty. Well might Belshazzar's knees
not together, and his loins be loose, as he read the handwriting
there on the wall, which said, Thou art weighed in the balances,
and found wanting. This is it. God has judged you,
and God has found you guilty, and God has pronounced sentence,
and this is it. This is it. Paul prayed a loving
prayer for his friend, Onesiphorus, and this is all that he could
say. Listen to it. Paul said, The Lord that he may
find mercy of the Lord in that day. I tell you, I can't think
of anything more terrible or more unthinkable, more horrible,
than to hear Christ say at the judgment, Depart from me. Bind him hand and foot and cast
him into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing
of teeth. That's got to trouble you. That's
got to give me some concern to think about as we're getting
older and as death is coming and as judgment is sure and certain
and eternity is so long and hell is moving up to meet you if you're
coming, to hear him say either one of two things. Either enter,
enter, beloved, into the kingdom prepared for you before the foundations
of the world. That's what we all hope to hear.
But what if we hear the other? To the to the people on the left,
he says, depart from me into outer darkness, where the worm
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. But Paul removes that
fear. Look at verse 34. He says, Who
is he that condemneth? Who is he that condemneth? He
challenges heaven, earth and hell. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yet rather,
who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us." Note this, in Matthew 7
those people pleaded immunity from the wrath of God based on
what they had done. But here Paul does not plead
that at all. Paul does not say, who is he
that condemned me? I founded a lot of churches,
I preached a lot of sermons. I fasted, and prayed, and tithed,
and given my income and my loyalty to God, and won many souls. Who
is he that condemned me?" That's not what he said. He challenged
his condemnation on this basis. Who is he that condemned him?
First, it is Christ that died. It is Christ, our Lord, who died.
We have a ransom. We have a substitute, none other
than the Son of God, the sinless one, the anointed one. He took
our sins in his body on the tree and died for us. and put them
away. Who is he that condemns? Christ
died for me. He was wounded for my transgressions,
and by his stripes I am healed. Yea, rather, we don't put enough
significance on that word rather. Christ died for our sins, and
rather, he is risen again. What does his resurrection mean
to us? First of all, his resurrection
denotes this, total clearance of all the sins which he bore.
When he bore our sins and paid for them and died for them, when
God raised him from the dead, God is saying, I accept the Son's
offering, I accept his sacrifice, I accept his atonement. It is
Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even,
even at the right hand of God. Who is he? He is Christ, the
Son of God. What did he do? He died for our
sins. Where is he now? Where is your representative?
Where is your substitute? Where is your Savior? Is it some
idol sitting on a shrine or somewhere? Is it some preacher down in a
temple or a synagogue or a church? Is it some musty old doctrine
pushed away on a shelf, bookshelf, in a book? Where is your mediator? Paul said, my mediator is at
the right hand of God. The place of honor, the place
of love, the place of power, the place of acceptance. That's
where he is. is at the right hand of God,
and also, more than this, not only did he die, not only was
he raised, not only is he at the right hand of God, but he
also, in that capacity, is praying for me. He makes intercession
for us. He calls our name. He said, Peter,
I've prayed for you. And he calls the name of every
one of his children, because they're all written on his hand
and on his breastplate, the great high priest. And now the fourth
fear, fear of falling away. Let me be as plain and straightforward
as I can be in dealing with this falling from grace, fear of falling. John said some did, they went
out from us, and the reason they went out from us is they never
were of us. Had they been of us, they would have continued
with us. Two things. Number one, there is no possibility
of anyone in Christ falling from Christ, no possibility. Paul
says, look down in Romans 8, 35-39, who can separate us from
the love of Christ? For tribulation, or distress,
or famine, or persecution, or the sword, or nakedness, or peril,
or height, nor depth, nor length, nor breadth, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor any other creature, they are not able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. Our Lord
said, All that my Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh out in no wise cast out. He said, And John said,
My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, and no man shall pluck them out of my Father's
hand. All who are in Christ are sure and secure and safe. But here's the question. Are
you in Christ? Am I in Christ? That's the question
to be answered. Are we in the Redeemer? Not am
I in the Church, not am I in the right organization, not am
I in the right denomination, not do I hold to the right standards,
but am I in Christ? To be in Christ is to be forgiven.
To be in Christ is to be redeemed. To be in Christ is to be accepted.
To be in Christ is to be seated, right now, at the right hand
of God. And we're exhorted throughout the scripture to examine ourselves,
whether we be in Christ. Know you're not your own self?
How that Christ is in you, unless you're reprobate? Scripture tells
us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure.
And if you do this, you'll never fail. Am I in Christ? Seek the
Lord. that you may be found in him.
These messages can be obtained by writing to me. They are on
cassette tape, not in print, cassette tape. If you would like
to have them, you write. There is a small charge. The
address will be given by the announcer. Until next week, I
bid you a very pleasant, good day.

Four Great Fears Removed

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Four Great Fears Removed

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