No Longer Living Out of a Spirit of Fear

Transcribed by Beluga AI.

Why don’t we read Luke 12:4-9.

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. ⁸ “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, ⁹ but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. (Luke 12:4-9, ESV)

Okay, let’s pray.

Father, as we wrestle with this text and some other difficult texts, we pray that you give us the Spirit, give us revelation and understanding and wisdom from above. On our own, we are totally lost. We don’t understand a thing.

But we ask humbly, in your presence, that you would come and reveal things to us. Come and meet us. Come heal us. Come encourage us.

We’re straining our ear to hear your voice today. Shut out all the noise. We want to hear your voice and your voice alone. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

So we’re going to talk about fear of the Lord today. There are many fears in life and very most of them are negative.

But there are a few, including the one that we just read, fear of the Lord, which are positive. So can anyone think of negative fears? I’m sure we all know what they are. But something that’s a little more personal, that you don’t mind sharing what you’re afraid of.

Negative fears, but also maybe some positive fears which motivate you in a good way. Anybody? Not generic, but something a little more personal. Like what is John afraid of? Like he’s thinking sometimes. Ezra, I see the older brother, the scary older brother.

I understand because I’m an older brother. My younger brother still fears me. Anybody else?

What are you afraid of? Negative fears that we should get rid of. Positive fears that motivate us. Fear of your own reaction to something. Yes. Yes.

I sometimes fear that I will lose it. I will lose control, I will lash out, I will strike somebody, go to jail. I have a whole sort of series of fears that go down that road. Maybe that’s not what Janet’s thinking, but I take it that way.

There are things in me that should never come out. And I actually am afraid that there will come a situation that I will lose control. Anybody else? Any other fears that you may have? Car accident? Yes, I have a fear of car accidents. And I tell Jackie, drive safer out of fear of car accidents. Yes, that’s a real fear. Anybody else?

Okay, this one’s really personal. Yes. Fear of what other people think. Yes. So fear of not doing the thing that will make other people think better of you. Yes. But then.

So trying to get away from that and then towards the fear of not doing what God wants. Yes. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yep. Right.

They’re very related. The fear of man makes us adjust ourselves and try to please them, and we lose sight of God. Versus if we fear God, it seems like that conquers the fear of man. Like where we become fearless. We don’t actually care what other people think. Whatever God says goes. So that’s very true. Thank you.

Anybody else? Well, I must be a scaredy cat because I have a long list of fears.

Not all of them are, like, very personal, but some of them are. I think I divided them up into level one and level two fears. Level one being less serious, level two being more serious.

So level one: fear of public speaking, which I had growing up. I should not be speaking here on a Sunday. Fear of public speaking. Fear of sudden loud sounds. I get very startled easily. That’s a defect. That’s a defect. I think other people are just. They go about their day, but I get startled. Fear of scary movies.

I don’t have them, but I know that’s a real fear. Fear of heights I do have because I have a fear of falling and dying. I have a recurring nightmare of falling through my bed. And it turns out when I read my Bible, hell or Hades is described as the underworld. So literally falling through my bed.

I was going to hell for most of my childhood and Satan was trying to pull me that direction. But God had mercy. And now I’m not. I don’t have that fear anymore. Fear of getting into a car accident.

We share. Fear of surviving a car accident and being paralyzed is maybe a different fear. I already shared. Fear of going to jail. Fear of losing control. Fear of losing mental stability. Fear of falling into depression. Fear of being.

Because we just don’t know, like, mentally we’re all very fragile in some sense, that maybe just the right circumstance hasn’t come. But if it comes, could we all fall into depression or some sort of mental instability?

Fear of cancer. Fear of dementia, Alzheimer’s fear. Fear of being a nobody. Fear of failing.

Fear of running out of money. Fear of suffering. Fear of loved ones suffering. Fear of tribulation. And there’s some in the body of Christ who are so afraid of tribulation. They have theology that says you won’t even be in tribulation. Don’t worry, you’re going to be raptured. I’m not sure, but there seems to be a fear of suffering and tribulation.

So those are like level one fears, the deeper fears. I think a lot of our fears stem from a fear of dying. So that’s a level two fear.

Fear of dying alone, maybe even a greater fear. Fear of loved ones going to hell. Fear of myself denying Christ. Fear of going to hell myself. Fear of losing salvation.

Let me read the passage which started me down this road. John 19:6. We are entering closer and closer to the Passion week and the resurrection of Christ. And so I’m studying these texts. John 19:6.

⁶ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” ⁷ The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” ⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. ⁹ He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” (John 19:6-10, ESV)

And then I also want to read Matthew 27:15.

¹⁵ Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. ¹⁶ And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. ¹⁷ So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” ¹⁸ For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. ¹⁹ Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” (Matthew 27:15-19, ESV)

So Pilate on the surface seems like a fearless, courageous man of power and authority. But he had this dream that was given to him through his wife. And the wife said, have nothing to do with Jesus. Don’t even go near him. Don’t involve yourself with this matter involving Jesus.

Just get out of it. And so Pilate is already afraid. And then he hears what the Pharisees have to say, that a man has to die if he calls himself the Son of God. There’s a law, and it says he’s even more afraid.

So going into this meeting, encounter with Jesus, he’s already afraid. He hears this, now he’s even more afraid. But then he goes in front of Jesus and before the crowd, he acts all tough. And I think we do that sometimes, we act tough, that we have everything under control.

I don’t have any fears. But if we’re honest, there are fears deep down that are lurking, that are confusing us, that are binding us, that are causing us to act in a way that is not proper for a Christ follower.

So I want to talk about these negative fears which must leave. We must overcome all negative fears. But there are some positive fears and one that we read, fearing God, that we must embrace because that’s a good thing to have these proper fears. And I will share some of them with you.

I have a deep fear, which I think is a positive fear, of disappointing the ones closest to me. Like, if I ever did something that would disappoint Jackie, it would crush me. And so just the fact that she’s in my life, she doesn’t know this, but it drives me to become a better person. It drives me to not lose my faith in Jesus. It motivates me in a positive way because the last thing I want to do is do anything that would ever disappoint her. The same for my boys.

Like I am trying to be a model for them for what a godly man should be. The last thing I want to do is become a hypocrite. And so I tell them to do things, but I do them myself. I’m not telling them to do something and then I’m secretly not doing it. I’m not two-faced, I’m not double-minded, I’m not a hypocrite. And so if I tell them to watch out for this, it’s because I myself am watching out for that.

If I say don’t do this, it’s because I don’t do this, do this, because I am doing this. So I’m. I don’t want to be a kind of person who will disappoint my family.

And that’s a positive thing. It drives me to become better. It drives me to Jesus. It drives me to say, I don’t want to be a fake. I don’t want to be a phony. I don’t want to be a failure spiritually. I don’t want to do anything that would bring shame upon them, to disgrace them.

For them to be embarrassed that I am their husband or their father is a positive fear that I think all of us, we can embrace this because it’s the same with Jesus or our Heavenly Father.

In the end, do I want them to be embarrassed or do I want them to be proud of me? Like, I want Jesus to say, good job, well done. You spoke a certain way and you lived it out.

Good job, well done, good and faithful servant.

I want my Heavenly Father to be so proud of me. So that might seem so far, like, how can we? How can we have Jesus be proud of me or Heavenly Father be proud of me?

Let’s bring it down a little bit closer. What about the people in our lives who see us day in and day out, and also all of you? I don’t want to ever be involved in a scandal. I don’t want ever someone to say, oh, Ray was my pastor, and look at what he did. That’s so shameful. I would never want to do that to you. Because I hold myself to a higher standard, I want to be a person of integrity. I’m not telling you to do something and then secretly I’m doing the opposite.

So these. There’s a positive fear. Fear of God, fear of disappointing God, fear of disappointing Jesus, fear of disappointing your loved ones. You don’t want to do that. And so that’s a positive thing we embrace.

In Proverbs 9:10,

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10, ESV)

And then in Proverbs 3:7,

⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. (Proverbs 3:7, ESV)

I might think I can handle my life, or I’m wise in myself, but I know there’s no wisdom in me. I know I don’t understand how to do life in a pleasing way or how to be a person of integrity on my own. I don’t know how to do this, but I have fear of the Lord. So I turn to him, and there. There is wisdom. I ask him for wisdom.

He’s the source of wisdom. And by doing this, by having a proper fear of the Lord, I turn away from evil. So people who are constantly falling into evil and sinning left and right all the time, it’s because they don’t have proper fear of the Lord.

If you have proper fear of the Lord, if you have proper fear of even disappointing your loved ones, there are many things you would never even come close to doing because you don’t want to disappoint. That’s what fear of the Lord is.

Out of a desire to please your Heavenly Father and out of a desire to make Jesus proud that we followed him well and we served him well, naturally, we’re going to not be tempted to do evil. Not because it’s a law or a rule, but because we have this fear, proper fear.

I don’t want to disappoint them. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I don’t want to be somebody who is acting a certain way, a Christian on Sunday, but not acting that way in private. I want my public and my private life to match.

I want to be somebody that Jackie and the boys can be proud of. All members of Hill Community Church can be proud. They come to this church, there is no scandal. There’s no skeletons in the closet. Because a proper fear of the Lord means you turn away from evil.

Deuteronomy 10:20.

²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. (Deuteronomy 10:20, ESV)

And so, as a New Covenant believer in the New Testament, now we know, understand the fuller picture of what this means.

The fear of man, the fear of things in this world, all the negative fears it causes us in those moments of quaking and trembling to let go of Jesus. But somebody who has fear of the Lord knows I need to run to Jesus and hold fast to him and not let go.

That is what it means to have fear of the Lord. I’m never going to let go of Jesus.

Even though there’s a crisis, even though there’s an emergency, I’m not stressed, I’m not anxious. I’m not falling apart.

I’m not letting go of Jesus. I’m holding fast to Jesus through this crisis, through this trial.

That’s somebody who has fear of the Lord and who has faith in Christ. That is the fuller picture of what we’re getting. A little glimpse in the Old Testament.

Also, Deuteronomy 31. This is Moses at 120 years old. He is nearing death and he says,

⁶ Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, ESV)

And so we are not courageous because we’re so good at fighting or we have so much bravado or we’re so skilled. No, we don’t. We don’t go like that into battle. But we’re strong and courageous because we fear the Lord. And because we fear the Lord, we don’t fear man. We don’t fear the enemies because.

Not because we’re so capable of fighting the enemies and Satan and unclean spirits, but it’s because we believe in faith that Jesus is here with us. He will never leave us, never forsake us. He is going into battle before us. He is our shield.

So this is why we are not afraid. All the negative fears. If we hold fast to Jesus, and he is your shield, you’ll be fearless.

Now we’re getting into back to our main text.

Luke 12:4 says,

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. ⁸ “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, ⁹ but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. (Luke 12:4-9, ESV)

And so here there’s a whole range of possible fears. And what’s the worst thing that man can do to us? I mean, man can ridicule you, man can talk, insult you, man can persecute you, man can do all kinds of things. And we can live out of fear of.

Of men and trying to please men and trying to look a certain way before man. But what is the actual worst thing they can do? They can kill you. And God says, well, if you die, it’s heaven for you. Like,

what’s the big deal? What. What do you have to be afraid of? Even if they kill you, that’s not the end. You have heaven. Isn’t that. Don’t. Don’t we believe that, that we want to be in heaven? Isn’t that why we can overcome all the fears of this life?

Because the worst possible thing, somebody killing you for Christ and you in faith, standing firm like Stephen while he’s being stoned, and you acknowledging Christ and the Holy Spirit, just pouring out truth in that moment because you’re not afraid. That is the kind of faith and fearlessness that God is looking for.

And even the smaller fears. What if you do run out of money? Don’t you see the God, he cares for the sparrows? They’re not dying of hunger and dropping out of the sky. Doesn’t he know the number of hairs on your head?

I don’t know the number of my hairs on my head. I don’t know any family member’s number of hairs on their head because it’s falling out. So the numbers are constantly changing. But God knows exactly, on every given moment, exactly how many hairs, how many are black, how many are gray, how many are falling out. He knows the exact number of hairs on your head.

So don’t worry, you’re not going to starve, don’t worry. All the things that make you nervous,

don’t worry. The sickness that you have, don’t worry. And he says, fear God.

Fear God and you will overcome your fear of man. Fear God, you will overcome.

What does it mean to fear God?

It says in 2 Timothy 1:7,

⁷ for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV)

Not a spirit of fear, it’s timidity, it’s cowardice, its fearfulness, it’s trembling, it’s being anxious, a failure to speak up when you should be speaking up. And out of that spirit of fear leads to a sense of the opposite of what the rest of this verse says.

A sense that I’m powerless, I can’t do it. That’s coming from a spirit of fear. I can’t do it, I’m powerless. And a mind that is not sound, that’s lacking soundness, a mind that is running out of control, a mind that is always anxious, always stressed, always worrying from one thing to another is coming out of a spirit of fear.

And out of this spirit of powerlessness, lacking of a sound mind, you end up not loving very well because you’re too afraid to offend, to say something that will hurt that person. Or I just.

I’m inadequate. I have nothing good to say. I shouldn’t come up to hear and pray because I’m too afraid of what people might think of me when I pray publicly.

All of this is coming from a spirit of fear. And that’s not the Spirit he gave us. the Spirit that he gave us is power. God is powerful. I’m not afraid. A power of love. Lord, let me be a vessel of your love. I’m not afraid. Let me go out and be a vessel of your love. And a sound mind. There is peace on the inside.

You’re not stressed, you’re not anxious. your mind is not spiraling. It’s a mind that is at peace and at rest. Rest.

Just trying to unpack. What does it mean to fear the Lord? Another verse: Isaiah 62:2.

² All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2, ESV)

When Isaiah had an encounter with the Holy God, he trembled.

He trembled in the presence of a holy God. He says, woe is me. I’m undone. He is. He’s physically trembling, literally fearful. Emotionally also must have been very fearful.

And this same prophet who encountered the Lord like this says, you need to tremble at His Word. The reason why people live so casually in sin is because they don’t tremble at His Word. There are verses in here that should cause us to tremble, and yet many people, just their eyes are blind.

And then there’s this verse that should cause them to tremble, but they just gloss over it. They don’t even know it’s in the Bible, and they don’t know this is a serious thing, that you have a lying problem. Don’t you know that liars do not inherit the kingdom of God? That should cause trembling if you’re a chronic liar.

And so we need to be a people. If you have proper fear of the Lord, we take His Word seriously, and there are verses here that should cause us to tremble.

Philippians 2:12 says,

¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. ¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵ that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2:12-16, ESV)

So also this idea of Paul is saying to the Philippians, make me proud. Make me proud that you are the kind of person you held fast to Jesus, you did not let go. Make me proud, Philippians, so that I won’t look at you and say, I wasted my life investing in you because you let go. Don’t make me say that about you. Make me proud. Make sure you hold fast to the end.

And it says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. There are theology out there which I just. I know it’s true, but it’s so partial, it’s so incomplete. Once saved, always saved. I read the security of somebody who is in the Father’s hands. I read that alongside of this verse. Work it out with fear and trembling, and people might say, oh, this is just reverence. It’s not fear. No, literally, it’s trembling with fear. It’s not trembling with fear. Like today I feel saved. To tomorrow I don’t feel saved. Not that kind of a trembling that I’m in salvation, out of salvation. Not that kind of a trembling. But I’m on the path of salvation. I’m holding onto Jesus. Let me make sure I keep holding on to Jesus. Let me make sure I keep having my faith in Jesus.

Even if I fall into sin, it’s okay. As long as I run to Jesus and I confess my sins, I’m okay. I’m not in and out of salvation. But it’s not a. This assurance of salvation. It’s just not a license to live however you want. And it’s.

Salvation is a guarantee. And because I’m saved today, I’m going to be saved on my last day.

You know, we might say, well, I’m qualified. I should be the CEO of Google. Doesn’t mean they’re going to hire you. You might have this feeling, I’m in heaven, it’s guaranteed, I’m assured I’ll be in heaven. It’s not up to us. We don’t determine who goes to heaven or hell.

And so there’s a sense in us, we’re trembling because I want to hold on to Jesus, and may I hold on to Jesus until my last breath.

That is the guarantee and assurance that I have salvation. And this needs to be worked out because there are things that will happen in the course of your life that might cause you to let go of Jesus in a crisis, or let go of Jesus in condemnation, or let go of Jesus because the world’s persecution is too strong and you just want to fit right in. You have a chance to acknowledge Christ, but you bite your lip and you fail to acknowledge him.

There are things in life which might cause you or me to let go of Jesus out of fear. And so we need to work out all the things in us that are negative fears. Let’s drive them all out, let’s repent of them, let’s bring them all to Jesus during this service.

And this sense of fear and trembling, it comes out of a sense of inadequacy. And if you feel inadequate, you will run away. But there’s a positive way that you can have fear and trembling, that you feel inadequate.

But in faith, you go to Jesus and you say, where I am falling short, you’re strong. Where I am weak, you’re strong. Where I am a sinner, I’m still sinning in this way you’ve never sinned, and please forgive me.

There’s a way that we can, instead of drawing back in faithlessness, in fearfulness, in the sense of inadequacy, there’s a positive meaning of this fear and trembling where you know you don’t meet the requirements, you know you’re a sinner, you know that one sin disqualifies you from heaven, you know you deserve hell. There’s a sense of inadequacy.

We all feel it. We all feel it acutely every single day. But does that mean that we just, we don’t try? Does that mean we don’t struggle against sin to the point of shedding blood? Does it mean that we just live like everybody else in the world?

We live casually, we live randomly, sinfully. Or there’s a sense of out of my inadequacy, I keep running to Jesus and you keep repenting and you say, Lord, I won’t do it again, Lord, I’m going to be better, Lord, I want to do better.

And you try your best, and you leave the rest to the Lord. That is a sense of fear and trembling. It’s not like I am in and out of salvation, and now I don’t believe, and therefore I feel inadequate.

I’m going to throw in the towel because I can’t live up to the standard. Of course, we don’t live up to the standard, but we run to Jesus, and we say, Lord, please forgive me. I give you this sin, I give you this fear. Help me to be better.

I want to be better. I want to overcome this sin. I want to overcome this fear. Please help me.

And we do our part to be the best version of ourselves we can be. This is not self improvement. This is with the Lord’s help, doing your best. Like Apostle Paul did. He says, I ran my race. He ran hard. He ran hard.

He says, I hope I, I didn’t waste my time with you, Philippians, because if you let go of Jesus, then all of those years I was with you, it was a waste of my time. I should have invested in somebody else.

So Paul is running hard. He says, I poured out everything. He’s not saying, well, once saved, always saved. I’m fine. No, he himself is telling the Philippians because Paul must have been doing it himself. He is working out his salvation with fear and trembling.

No wonder he’s this kind of intense man. No wonder he is not falling apart just because a little bit of suffering. He’s overcome all the fears because in his prayer closet he’s preaching this to himself.

Let me work out my salvation. I’m inadequate, I’m weak, but God is strong. I’m a little bit fearful now, but I bring my fears to Jesus and he’s working out his salvation. I feel inadequate, but Lord, please, please fill up my inadequacy so I can become a better Christ follower and a better preacher of the Gospel.

He’s doing all this in his prayer closet. This is what it means to fear the Lord and work out salvation, your own salvation, with fear and trembling.

In Mark 16, it’s the same idea as Philippians 2. After the women witness the empty tomb, there was an angel who says, don’t be alarmed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen. And so now they, they, they don’t know what’s happening. They just know the tomb is empty. And it says they were trembling. The same idea before this miracle of a risen Lord. They are trembling, fear and trembling.

Now let’s get into now the practical side of fearing the Lord.

1 John 4:18.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (1 John 4:18, ESV)

So I want to ask the question, when we have proper fear of God, is God an angry judge who’s ready to pounce on us and punish us with every infraction, every sin? Or is he a loving father we should run to? Which one is it? Which one is it?

Is he an angry father who is ready to punish us? Or is he a loving father we should run to because he’s going to embrace us? Which one is it, loving father? It’s both.

Let me qualify. If you are a non-Christian, like we, you know, people read the Old Testament and say, why God? Why is God so angry? And then they read the New Testament. Why is God so kind? It’s because he’s both. And to a non-believing world, he is an angry judge. They are going to go to hell.

Like it or not, God doesn’t want it to do that. But unfortunately, because they don’t have faith, they will go to hell. And so to everybody in hell, they’re going to be shaking their fist at an angry God.

Why did you send me here? I don’t deserve this. I was a good person, even though they didn’t believe in Jesus.

Also, if you read the Old Testament, when the people of God didn’t have faith, pretty much they’re like a non-believer. God was angry, and the anger was toward their lack of faith.

They were faithless, and so they were treated like a non-believer. Essentially, why don’t you have faith? So to them, they’re feeling their experience like Moses, all the people at the bottom of the mountain who lacked faith. To them, God is an angry God. I don’t want to go up the mountain; I’m going to be burned to a crisp. But to Moses, who has faith, the same God he draws near. The difference is one person has faith; the people do not. So it all depends.

If you have faith in Jesus, it doesn’t matter how many sins you’ve committed. Is there punishment? Is he an angry God who will throw you into hell?

So today you’re on the path to heaven, tomorrow he gets out the whip, he gets out the belt, he smacks you around and says, you’re going to hell today. Is that the kind of schizophrenic Heavenly Father we have? No, it’s not like that.

We have a Heavenly Father who is steadfast, who is long suffering. Who is this loving Heavenly Father who says, in my presence, there’s no fear.

And the key difference is, do you have faith or not? If you have faith, all the fears will be cast out because Jesus is there. Fear and faith cannot coexist as long as you have faith in the presence of God. Perfect love casts out fear.

When Jesus is present, you will not be afraid. If you’re afraid, it’s because you’ve let go. If you hold fast and you have faith, it means all the fears will leave. They cannot, they cannot keep tormenting you, bothering you. Satan cannot keep drawing you away from Christ out of fear.

He did. Because God gave us a spirit not of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. In the presence of Jesus, all the fears will leave. And so if we’re afraid, that just means we’re not really very good at holding fast to Jesus. We’re not consistent in our faith. Yet our faith still has to level up. Because if you have faith, it’s not an angry judge. You have a loving Heavenly Father. You can go to him over and over. Even if you keep sinning, don’t worry, there’s grace for you.

And he will help you to overcome. It’s not a path and a license to sin. It’s a power to overcome.

To drive this point a little bit more, we can read Hebrews 10:32.

³² But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴ For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. ³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. ³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. ³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; ³⁸ but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” ³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 10:32-39, ESV)

And then actually, let me read the verses that come right above that. Hebrews 10:26.

²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:26-31, ESV)

And so I want to ask again, is God an angry judge or is he a loving Heavenly Father?

It depends on your faith. It depends on your faith. These people who once walked with Jesus encountered a situation in which they deliberately lacked faith. They turned their back on him, and they went back to their old life. And they said, forget Jesus. It doesn’t work. To such people, even though they were once saved because they walked away in unbelief, the author of Hebrews says, the Holy Spirit says, you’re trampling on the blood of the covenant and you’ve outraged the Spirit of grace.

What about Christians who have not walked away from the faith, but they are deliberately living in willful sin? I don’t know. I don’t know where they stand because according to what I read in Scripture, Christians, we don’t willfully sin. We don’t deliberately sin. There is a desire to do our best to be holy, to be pleasing to the Lord. There’s not this excuse that, well, I can’t help myself, I’m a slave of sin. I’m going to keep doing this.

No, as I read Scripture, the person who shrinks back in fear, the person who keeps justifying a life of sinning, seems to not understand that there is judgment for the sinner.

There’s grace for the person who has faith, who doesn’t want to sin, who wants to overcome sin. That’s a different kind of category altogether, which is all of us.

We don’t wake up saying, today I’m going to sin. No, we want to be holy. We want to make people proud. We want God to be proud of us.

We lived a good day today. We did not sin casually today. We struggled against sin. We had self-control over our thoughts and our tongue and our actions. We did well today. We pleased God today. We did our best today.

That is somebody who may stumble on occasion, but if you’re somebody who says, well, I’m turning my back, but it’s okay because I said a sinner’s prayer, so it’s guaranteed. Even if I walk away, I can’t really walk away. I’m going to be saved as I read this. No, that person is not enduring.

What about the Christian who just justifies, I just, it’s okay if I just keep on sinning? If I keep on sinning, the line between that person and somebody who deliberately walks away is paper thin. I just really can’t tell the difference.

We are Christians who endure to the end in faith and strive to do our best to please the Lord and to live a holy life and to live a righteous life. And we are, we are doing this with God’s help. And we, we know we’re inadequate. We know we fall short.

But we don’t go around saying that it’s okay to fall short all the time. We don’t mean to fall short. But when we do fall short, thankfully I have faith I can run to Jesus.

There’s grace for me. My Heavenly Father is not an angry judge. He knows that. He knows my heart. He knows I don’t want to be this way. He knows this character flaw in me, that I want to overcome this.

He knows I have a good heart, he knows I’m sincere, he will receive me and he’s gonna help me to overcome.

That’s a different person altogether. A person who has faith, who keeps running to Jesus when they sin. They run to Jesus when they fall short. They run to Jesus when they feel inadequate. They run to Jesus when they feel afraid.

That person who sets that pattern of faith in their life, you have nothing to be afraid of. Nothing to be afraid of. If you endure that way to the end, you have nothing to be afraid of.

That’s the best thing I can say to you. That’s what assurance of salvation looks like.

You just run to Jesus every day of your life until your last day.

Let me end with Hebrews 13:5.

⁵ Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶ So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, ESV)

Seeing a bank account getting lower and lower can introduce some level of fear. But God says, don’t be afraid. You have enough to live on.

Be content with what you have. Don’t be greedy for more. Be content. If you take in that verse, this truth will set you free. It’s a big verse. You want to wrestle with this one. You want to find contentment with what you have. And then it’s underlying, this is the truth. I will never leave nor forsake you. Jesus is with us. We put our faith in him. Jesus is with us. He will never leave nor forsake you.

That doesn’t mean that we can’t leave nor forsake him. We can. You can turn your back on Jesus. You can shrink back in fear. We can do a lot of things to Jesus that has nothing to do with what he does. He will never leave us.

He will never forsake us. We can forsake him. We can turn our back on him. We can say, forget you, Jesus, I’m going to chase the world that is on us. We have free will. We can on our last breath say, oh, Jesus, I don’t believe in you. You didn’t come through for me. I had a terrible life.

We can say, that doesn’t mean Jesus is going to leave you. He’s going to keep running for you. He’s going to keep coming after you. He’s going to keep chasing after you and pursuing you. But if you shrink back, there’s nothing he can do. If you say, well, I don’t believe in you. There’s nothing he can do. He’s not going to force his way upon you. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He doesn’t barge the door of your heart. Jesus just knocks, just politely knocks. You have to open the door of your heart.

You have to believe in him. He can’t force you to believe.

He can’t force you to keep running to him and giving him all your fears. And the secret is, if you fear God, you have this awareness. What can man do to me? They may talk bad of me. It’s okay. They might not like you, they might not invite you to the parties. It’s okay. What’s the worst thing that someone can do to you? They can kill you, for Christ’s sake. That’s not the worst thing for a believer.

And so, if you have this mindset that you fear God and you have certain positive fears in your life, you don’t want to disappoint people who are close to you.

You want to live a good life. You want to live a scandal-free life. You want to live a life not perfect, but to the best of your ability, you’re trying. you’re sincere, you’re a person of integrity, you’re honest.

These are positive fears which cause us to turn away from evil.

Okay, let’s pray.

Father, as we look into our hearts, we see many fears. And Lord, you want to address all these fears because sooner or later we’re going to be put into a situation, a crisis, maybe a tribulation, some suffering, that if we don’t address these fears, we’re going to shrink back from you.

We’re going to be, we’re going to crumble under the crisis. We’re going to fail to acknowledge your name. We’re going to deny you as Peter did before a servant girl.

So, Lord, we want to address all of these fears while we have the chance, so that when bigger tests come our way, we are standing firm.

We want to fear you because you’re the only one who determines heaven or hell. So we want to have fear, proper fear of you, proper respect.

You’re an angry judge for those who don’t have faith in your son. But, Lord, you’re a loving Heavenly Father for those who have faith in your son.

And so we want to be a people who hold fast to Jesus no matter what, no matter what situation comes our way. We cast out all fears in the presence of your perfect love because you never leave nor forsake us.

We’re never abandoned, we’re never orphaned, we’re never alone. you’re always with us. And so all fears cannot coexist. When we have faith in your son, we pray that as we hold fast to Jesus, whatever fears that are gripping us, it would lose its hold and be cast out of our lives.

Perhaps the biggest fear is losing salvation. Some people don’t even think it’s possible. But as far as I can tell, it is possible.

And so we want to hold fast to Jesus to the end. No matter what difficulty, no matter what fearful crisis comes our way. We want a people who resolve once and for all. We’re gonna run to Jesus and never let go. Even if we die.

What can man do to me? They may kill us because of Jesus, but that’s the worst they can do.

As long as we overcome that fear of dying, we’ll live a different life in this world. We’ll have a spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.

We need power to live this Christian life. We need to grow into becoming a loving person. We need a sound mind for this to happen.

You gave us this spirit. So, Lord, revive this spirit in us. Fill us, Holy Spirit, and revive our spirit to have a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

We want to be your hands and feet to love people in this world. In the face of tremendous opposition to the Name of Jesus, we don’t fear that. We need to have more of this spirit of power and love and a sound mind. Please grant it to us.

Revive this spirit and fill us with the Holy Spirit. We thank you for Your Body that was broken for us and Your Blood shed. Please drive out all fears in your presence, Lord.

In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.