Fear Not: Finding Freedom in the Fear of God

Well, all of us know what it is to be afraid.

Anybody ever been afraid before? I'm talking about afraid.

I see some hands, kind of afraid to raise a hand, right? Y'all see that's the

Baptist hand raised right here, right?

It's not that one. So you know what it is to live in fear? A lot of us do that, you know, at times.

And a fear of something or someone, maybe for a sustained season,

perhaps even our whole lives.

As this opening slide this morning shares with us, fear, though,

is an unproductive feeling, unless there really is something we ought to be

afraid of when we're faced with danger, right?

Christians, in many places around the world, must deal with people who want

to kill their bodies. Did you know that?

As it talks about here in Luke 12, 4 that Sharon read earlier,

Christians living as a witness in a neighborhood,

for example, people overrun by gangs or believers in a totalitarian state or

in a religion or a region likely to be targeted by terrorists all have reasons to be afraid.

But today we're going to look at whom to fear to start with.

But there's something even more frightening than being killed by terrorists.

Look at verses 2 and 3 of Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

The certain prospect of our deeds being exposed and brought into judgment.

And in light of that, Jesus tells us that we should fear who?

God that will give us the justice that we deserve for our sins. Listen to what he said.

Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him. Verse 5,

you will one day, I will one day die and face a God who has the absolute and

final authority to send you or I to eternal punishment for our sins and our misdeeds.

And if you were searching today for something to be worried about,

that would be a good candidate.

A lot of times we distract ourselves, and many Christians do not like to talk

about hell anymore. Have you noticed?

A lot of churches, you're hard-pressed to hear a whole lot of messages on hell.

For it seems like that part of the old-time religion, so to speak, people say.

And in our therapeutic era of today, where self-esteem and self-acceptance,

they're the hallmarks of emotional health,

the idea that God would find us worthy of punishment, it has to be dangerous

and unhealthy today, right?

That kind of thing that we need to leave in the past. But here we see that Jesus

does not share that opinion. Amen?

In fact, according to Jesus, we should be afraid.

Did Jesus preach more about hell or heaven?

Yeah, we should allow this reality here to occupy our thoughts and our minds.

Because if you want to know what to fear, fear getting to the end of your life

and finding out that you're on the wrong side of God's judgment.

You know, a lot of times people come to church. We all come. We come.

We want to worship the Lord. and sometimes we think, hey, I did my part.

I came to church. I'm worshiping God. Hallelujah.

We go home or we can't wait for the bell to ring right at 12 o'clock or something

like that. And we never think about like, you know what?

What have I done with almighty God? What have I done with Jesus?

Do I fear God? Like Jesus is saying in this passage, you know,

I think about what I could die of, you know?

Sometimes, like I told y'all before, it seems like we fear diseases or other

things more than we do God.

I mean, some people get 15,000 COVID shots and wear 89 masks.

Guess what? One day they're going to die regardless.

They're going to stand before a holy God according to this passage.

And it's not going to be a matter of how much you feared a disease or how many

vaccines you got. It's what did you do with Jesus?

What did you do with God? How did you respond to the fact that he has the authority

to cast your soul into hell for all eternity?

And he's just in doing so, by the way. You see, that fear enables us to acknowledge

Jesus before other people even, in verse 8.

Even if such a confession cost us our lives.

But if in the reality here, if the reality of God's judgment doesn't compel

us and we disown Jesus before others, we'll find ourselves, according to verse

9, disowned by God in the heavenly realms.

And these verses today lay out a tension, I think, that we still feel in our lives.

The world can be a scary place, right, for a believer.

But only, get this, only in a provisional way.

The world, in other words, according to this passage, can kill your body, but not your soul.

When we're called on to testify to Jesus in a hostile environment,

we don't need to be anxious or worried because the Spirit, it says in verse

11, is going to help us, right?

He's our helper, after all, our comforter. That doesn't necessarily mean that

we won't be killed for our faith one day or possibly even today.

But it does mean that God will help us testify truly and in so doing,

we'll preserve our souls, right?

And in a sense, don't miss this today. The fear of God's judgment is a key to

never experiencing God's judgment.

Y'all remember we opened up with, you know, fear and how different people have fears.

And, you know, many of them, it's just a wasted task because you got to have

something to really be afraid of, right?

To make it worth fearing. God is worth fearing.

Jesus also warns his hearers against a sin that God will not forgive.

But before I get there, I just want to say this again today.

God loves us, y'all, so much he made a way. We're going to talk about that more

in a moment for us to be forgiven because Jesus took it all. Amen.

Jesus warns us, though, his hearers against sin that God will not forgive.

Look at verse 10 again of Luke 12.

He says, and everyone who speaks a word against the son of man,

talking about Jesus, will be forgiven.

But anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

I have to say this morning, much ink has been spilt over arguing or splitting,

you know, talking about the exact meaning of these words.

And in the end, I think it's just easier to say what Jesus obviously does not mean by this statement.

It cannot be that Jesus is teaching that there is a sin that is too great to

be covered by his atoning sacrifice, because that would contradict his word, 1 John 1, 9 and 10.

It also cannot be that God is unwilling to forgive someone who consciously chooses

to reject Jesus, or else Peter or could never have been forgiven for denying Jesus, right?

And that's in Luke 23. But instead, as we see on this next slide,

it seems best to understand what Jesus is saying as a way of warning us,

Jesus is warning us against a persistent rejection of the Spirit's witness to Jesus.

A persistent rejection. Y'all, I mentioned earlier, many times some people,

we all are guilty of this at times, and especially before we knew the Lord,

we may come into his house, and God deals with our hearts.

Like in a few moments, we're going to have an invitation for those that have

never repented and put their faith in Jesus alone for their salvation.

And y'all, when the Holy Spirit is prodding at your heart, this is what he's

talking about, you continue to say, no, no.

You reject the Spirit's witness about Jesus to you.

And when you do that persistently over and over and over and over,

you're saying no, no, no.

Well, you obviously, if the ministry of the Spirit is bound up in witnessing

to God's salvation in the person of Christ, then to obstinately judge that witness's

faults unnecessarily or necessarily actually puts us outside of that salvation.

Let me put it this way though. Somebody who desires forgiveness through faith

in Jesus Christ alone cannot be guilty of this sin.

If you desire to be saved today and put your faith in Jesus alone,

you can't be guilty of this sin.

Actually Graham Cole actually sums up the evidence well in his commentary.

He says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is that self-righteous,

persistent refusal to embrace the offer of salvation in Christ,

his ministry of restoring his father's broken creation.

It is to set one's face against the Spirit's testimony to Christ as the Son

of Man with the authority to forgive sins.

The problem is the human heart settled in opposition to God.

Without repentance, there is no forgiveness.

You see, if we are always saying no when the Spirit prods our heart for salvation,

obviously our heart is in opposition to that.

And you have to repent, right? We repent and believe. We put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

And by the way, that's not a work. It's actually a gift from God when he grants

us the gift of repentance.

And we repent and put our faith and trust in him.

That means that we no longer are going down the path that we're heading on,

but we do that 180, right?

One 180, and then we turn around as well there and just turn all the way around

from sin all the way to God.

We change direction. We seek his forgiveness.

But let me tell you about a frightening story here real quick in this next slide coming up.

The parable that follows here in verses 13 through 21 illustrates,

I think, in miniature what Jesus has been talking about so far.

And the context for this story here is that a man came to Jesus for help with

a family dispute. Anybody ever had a family dispute before?

Hands are getting higher, all right?

Right? So it came to him about a family dispute regarding an inheritance of

all things, right? In verse 13.

And it's a bit of irony here because the one to whom the father has given all

judgment in his son, right?

Wonders why this man would come to him for resolution of such a squabble like

this, right? And instead of resolving the conflict, Jesus actually told a parable

that addressed a far more weighty issue.

I love how Jesus does this, right?

The story itself, verses 16 through 19, is a fairly simple one.

A fertile field makes a rich man even richer, right?

And after some shrewd investments in infrastructure, he looks forward to sitting

back and saying to himself, what?

You got it made, right? You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy.

Eat, drink, and be merry, verse 19.

In other words, he's worked hard, man. He's been saving up. He's been investing.

Now it's time to relax, right? But there's a catch. For that very night,

what's going to happen? According to verse 20, what?

He is to die and give an account for his life.

And in the end, Jesus lets us know that such a man is a fool.

He did not worry about the most important thing. Now, does that mean that it

was wrong for him to invest and be wise?

No. When we look at scripture, it's taught in scripture.

Go to the ant thou slugger, consider her ways and be wise.

Yes, we're to invest. Yes, we're to plan for the future.

But see, this guy did not worry and plan for the most important thing of all.

What was that according to verse 21?

Being rich toward God.

I wonder how many today have got it down about being rich toward the way that,

you know, are trying to build up for the future, but yet we're not thinking

about being rich toward God.

When it came time for him to give an account for his life, he was materially

wealthy, but spiritually destitute.

You see, the parable refocused the attention here of the person who wants help

with his inheritance squabble.

He might have a legal case, but the greater concern is what?

For the hold that money has on his heart.

Using him as an example, do you see that in this passage? Jesus warns the crowd, what? Watch out!

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. life does not consist in the abundance

of possessions in verses 15 and verse 23.

The foolish rich man illustrates that point.

He had the abundance of possessions that the man in the crowd hoped one day

he would have through his disputed inheritance.

But he didn't have true spiritual life, do you see?

And so we got to be on guard, church, against the deceitfulness of riches,

according to this passage, according to Jesus, that would cause us to fear a

dip in the stock market more than we fear our creator and judge.

This is what he's telling us today. Wealth tempts us to trust in it.

But when all of the secrets of our heart are disclosed, our money will not be

able to protect us from God's judgment. That's the point.

Well, let me also tell you today why we needn't fear in this next slide.

As the parable points out, the problem with many of us is that we fear the wrong things, right?

And while the prospect here of divine judgment might not seem like a positive

thing, in reality, the fear of the Lord frees us from all the other fears that

plague our day-to-day lives.

In fact, if you have got the fear of God right, then you don't need to fear

anything or anyone else.

In a world like ours today, think about it. Jesus' words, though,

they're kind of like that shimmering oasis in the desert, what he says here.

They're two words, and you've heard them earlier in Luke.

Don't fear. Don't fear.

He tells his followers not to fear the violence that other people might do to them in verse 4.

He tells them not to be anxious or worried when they're called upon to defend

themselves before hostile authorities in verse 11.

And he tells them not to worry about physical necessities as well,

like food and drink and clothing in verse 22 and verse 29.

It's all well and good for someone to tell you not to be afraid.

But fears don't subside, y'all, without a good reason.

And so what we really need to know this morning is why, why are we really safe?

To that end, listen, Jesus gives three basic reasons why we should not be afraid.

Here we go quickly number one it's a wonderfully practical reason by the way

listen to verse 25 and 26 take a look who of you by worrying can add a single

hour to your life i'll take a survey who of you out there by worrying can add

a single hour to your life raise your hand,

nope since you can't do this he he says since you cannot do this very little

thing why do you worry about the rest?

Why? Why do you worry about the

rest? It turns out y'all that anxiety is incredibly inefficient, right?

It consumes a lot of resources but accomplishes nothing of importance.

The next time that, think about this, the next time you begin to obsess over

things you fear, just simply heed Jesus' warning here in this passage that it

doesn't help. It's a dead-end street, in other words.

But even more importantly, Jesus tells us not to fear because God has promised to help his people.

That gets me excited, y'all. God has promised to help his people.

He tells his followers that in the moment of crisis, the Holy Spirit will teach

them what they need to know and say in verse 12.

God is committed to his people, and so he will make sure that these things,

that is the things that we need, right, according to verse 31,

will be given to us as well.

In the end, y'all, what more could you want?

People who don't know God are worried and anxious. Verse 30,

that makes sense, right?

But if God is so intimately involved in our lives, y'all, that he knows the

number of hairs on our heads, according to verse 7, and he knows everything

that we need, according to verse 30, what sense does it make to live in fear?

Most importantly, the third reason why we shouldn't fear God is that God loves us.

Come on, God loves us. In this passage, Jesus actually makes some arguments

from the lesser to the greater, by the way.

If God cares for sparrows, look back at verse 6 and 7, and ravens,

verse 24, and close the flowers in the field, verses 27 and 28,

how much more will he provide for all that you need?

The point is that if you are infinitely, I am infinitely more valuable to God than a bird.

So you can trust his loving provision for you.

In the end, y'all, if a powerful and loving God has declared his intention to

take care of you, there's nothing to be afraid of.

You see, it makes sense, doesn't it? When we get the fear of God right,

we don't need to fear anything else.

No economic shift or political change or even our own foolishness and failure

can frustrate God's purposes. Amen.

We serve a sovereign God.

That doesn't mean that we'll not know troubles and loss though.

But notice Jesus doesn't say, do not fear for everything will always go the

way you want it to go. That's not there.

He doesn't even tell us that what the future will hold.

Otherwise we could, what? We'd manage our expectations and figure things out on our own.

Instead, what we get something better, y'all.

The promise here, don't miss this today. The promise that God knows what we need and he loves us.

Jesus here, look at verse 32 again quickly. He urges his little flock to not be afraid.

God's loving care, church, is a safe place in which to locate your hope and confidence.

How many of you today are living in fear when you should be walking in faith?

In the end, your fear reveals a lot about your theology.

That just simply means what you believe about God. When you embrace,

when I embrace all anxiety and worry, you're embracing a set of beliefs about

God, his love for you, his ability to take care of you.

The Bible actually has a category, though, for faithful anxiety.

Some of y'all go, really? Yeah.

2 Corinthians 11, 28, 1 Corinthians 7, 32 through 34.

In this particular passage, a passionate concern for good that doesn't spiral

into fear and bitterness, but

rather it leads us to pray and trust in the Lord, giving thanks for what,

we know that God is going to provide for us, even as we cry out to him about

what we don't have at the moment.

We know our God is faithful. But when our anxiety here is fueled by fear,

an unhealthy fear, which is fearing everything but God, right?

The Bible talks about it less in terms of a weakness of constitution that needs

to be overcome and more as a sin when we're like that to be avoided and repented of.

You see, God's promised to meet our needs as his children.

You don't need to fear. We don't need to fear. But I will tell you,

that brings us to the last thing today, the gospel of fear.

If we take seriously what Jesus is saying in this passage today,

it'll create some tension in our minds today. Some of you may have already felt it.

On one hand, Jesus tells us to be afraid of God because he can throw us into hell.

God is holy and he hates sin. God cannot look upon sin. In fact,

in the New Testament, Paul said it is through the fear of the Lord that men

actually depart from iniquity or lawlessness.

On the other hand, Jesus encourages us to look to our merciful Heavenly Father

and trust for all that we need.

How can we resolve that tension? Do you see it? Where is it resolved?

At the cross.

That's where it's resolved.

How do we reconcile it? At the cross. It can only be reconciled at the cross

of Christ because at the cross, Eastwood, God poured out His holy wrath on Jesus

instead of pouring it out on His people.

There we see a God who is righteous and justly angry about our sin.

There's a God to fear, a God to fear. But at the cross, we also see the love

of God on display most clearly.

There we see a God who loved his little flock so much that he sent his only

son to take away their punishment, to take their punishment for them. Jesus in our place.

You know, this awfully holy God is more lovingly disposed here,

y'all, toward us than we could ever imagine.

The truth, that truth alone should set us free from those crippling fears that

enslave us who don't know this guy.

He set us free in order that we might what, according to verse 31 in this passage,

so we can seek first his kingdom with our whole lives and then show the world

how glorious and loving and trustworthy our God is.

Don't forget that, y'all. When you get the fear of God right,

you don't have to fear anything or anyone else.

There was a great 18th century pastor. His name was Jonathan Edwards.

You know this Brother Ronnie, he was once fired wrongly by the congregation he served.

He had faithfully served them for some time, and in addition to the humiliation

and the financial trouble that comes with his dismissal from his church,

he also had to endure actually being harshly criticized and attacked by people

that he had loved for years.

And in those circumstances, any person would be tempted to give in to fear and anxiety.

But one observer actually recorded in a journal, it was actually in his journal,

I should say, that what Edwards was able to remain peaceful throughout the whole

ordeal. Listen to what he said.

He recorded in his journal, he said, I never saw the last symptom,

the least symptoms, he said, of displeasure in his countenance the whole week,

but he appeared like a man of God whose happiness was out of the reach of his enemies,

and whose treasure was not only a future but a present good,

overbalancing all imaginable ills of life.

Y'all, the whole point, when we locate our happiness in our holy and loving

God, our happiness can always be out of the reach of anything that would seek to harm us.

Because I've told y'all before, really, happiness is kind of based on happenstances in our world.

But true joy, as we're really talking about here, is not dependent upon that.

It's dependent upon our God who supplies everything that we need.

We see in Jesus' words a reminder, I think, here.

I want to go back to the first of Luke really quick as we close,

because this is the second closing, by the way, if you're keeping track.

When Luke's gospel began, get this today, Zechariah. Remember that?

Back in chapter one, Mary and the shepherds, they all heard their angelic visitors

speak a word of joy and comfort to them in their fear. Because you remember, do not be afraid.

Don't fear. I bring you joy, right? It was sensible to be afraid in the presence

of one of God's angels, right? Back in chapter one, verse 19.

But these messengers were sent with news of great joy. Remember?

Here in chapter 12, we actually hear an echo of that pattern.

The good news of Jesus is that God is a frightening judge, but he's shown great

love, church, and care for us in Christ.

When we trust him, he replaces our anxiety with peace and our fear with joy. Do you get it today?

The king has come. He came to bring the joy of his presence and his salvation.

Fear not. Fear not. Y'all, today as we consider this passage.

I want to encourage you with heads bowels and eyes closed this morning,

just for a few moments. I want to encourage you today.

Have you dealt with Jesus in your life? Have you come to that place when you

realize that you're utterly bankrupt and destitute like this foolish rich man before God?

You may have gotten everything else right, but you haven't had the fear of God right.

Yet you haven't done what Jesus said here. Maybe you've been living life.

You got all the basis coverage, you think, but you're not

fearing the one you should really fear and if you

fear him in the healthy way and you

you repent and realize that he he gave his

one and only son to die on the cross for you on your behalf when you fear him

properly you don't need to fear anything or anyone else today you just need

to say yes to jesus don't let the prodding of the holy spirit moving in your

heart today calling you to himself stop you from saying yes now's the time,

y'all, as we stand in just a moment for you to step out and say, I want Jesus.

I know I need forgiveness. I want to put my faith and trust in him alone for my salvation.

It's not in the good that I do. There's no good I can do. All of it is filthy

rags in God's sight apart from Christ.

But the day I come saying, Lord, I cast it all to you, Lord. Forgive me, Lord.

Save me. I promise you he'll do that today. He cares for you.

Some of you may be out here today.

Some of you may know that you know the Lord.

Maybe you remember and you know that you put your faith and trust in him alone.

But yet some of you are fearing things today, whether it is dying,

whether it is a disease, whether it is something in your life,

whether it is like I said earlier, maybe the stock market didn't do what you

want it to do today or tomorrow or next week or next month.

Maybe you're fearing all the crazy stuff that you can do nothing about.

But the one thing that you can do something about today is, first of all,

realizing your need for a Savior.

Putting your faith and trust in Him. And the other thing, Christian,

for you is to say, Lord, forgive me because you said that I can trust you, Lord.

If I get the fear of you right, everything else I don't have to be afraid of.

I know you care for me as your little child.

Today, Lord, I come to you and I repent of my worrying, of my anxiety,

of holding on to all this stuff that I worry about every day.

And today, Lord, I want to say no to that and say yes to you, Lord.

I want to say no to walking in all this despair, fear, and anxiety.

And I want to walk in faith today because of what you did for me on the cross.

And you love me in the way that you love me. That may be you today.

Some of you may have been visiting here for a while. Maybe you're not a part

of this church as far as membership.

Maybe today, guys, laid on your heart. You know what? I want to be a part at

Eastwood Baptist Church. If that's you today, I encourage you to walk this aisle.

Give us an opportunity to talk with you.

And for you to become a part of this mission here at Eastwood Baptist Church.

Right now, I encourage you to stand as we pray. Father God, in these next moments,

Lord, we ask that your will be done.

And Father, I pray that those that need to do business with you will do it today in Jesus' name. Amen.