Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Well, even though so many of the proverbs in the book of Proverbs are independent little truisms that are capable of standing alone, standing on their own, this doesn't mean that the context in which we find each proverb is irrelevant. And what I mean by this is that the book of Proverbs has been assembled so that similar Proverbs are sometimes grouped together in the same context or in the same chapter. And even though the chapter divisions were not initially part of the book of Proverbs, those were added later, those chapter divisions are in recognition of these groupings. And so what we find in chapter 29 are several Proverbs that deal with political tyranny and oppressive government. with political tyranny and oppressive government. For example, verse two states, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Now this is one of the themes of this chapter, of chapter 29. And I think it's a theme you probably do not struggle with to understand or to relate to. When righteous rulers are in authority, God's people rejoice. We are happy, we are blessed. We will submit to our rulers because it's a joy to submit to righteous leadership. But when the wicked are in authority, God's people groan. We lament and we grieve because our leaders lay heavy burdens and heavy weights upon us. There's another proverb that's in a totally different chapter that speaks to God's control over the behavior of civil rulers. It's Proverbs 21, verse one, which says, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes, referring to the king's heart. And so the conscientious Christian understands that this means God is utterly sovereign. over who occupies different political offices, different offices of authority. And not only does God control who's in the office, but he controls the heart of each of those people who are in office, the heart of the ruler, the king's heart. It's like a river of water which the Lord turns wherever he wishes. But this raises a profound question. If God is in control of who occupies the offices of the land, as well as what those officers set their hearts upon, then why does God put evil rulers in positions of leadership? Why doesn't he just put righteous rulers in office so that the people will rejoice? Why would God cause any of us to suffer under the oppression of unrighteous kings and governors? The answer is really not. all that difficult to understand. When a nation or a state or a city honors the Lord and obeys his law, then the Lord will bless that nation, state, or city. He'll bless them in a multiplicity of ways, one of which is to give them righteous leaders under whom they can rejoice. But when a nation or a state or a city rebels against God and rejects his moral law, then God will chasten or punish that nation, state, or city by giving them wicked rulers who oppress them. And even this should be seen as a mercy from God when he gives oppressive rulers. Even this is a mercy from God because Oppression and hardship are what cause people to return to God, to call out to God. It's during the difficult times when we look to God in ways that we were not looking to Him, when times were better, when everything was going our way. And so there's a mercy, even in God sending us oppressive rulers. Another way of stating this same principle is that God gives people leaders who reflect their own hearts. God gives people leaders who reflect their own hearts. And when the people desire and pursue righteousness, then God gives them righteous rulers. And when the hearts of the people are in rebellion to God, then God gives them leaders who are in rebellion to him as well. This has never been easier to see than in our own nation and state because we are a republic, right? Which means we have the right to vote. In the history of the world, it's a rare privilege for the people who are governed to be able to choose who governs them. More often, leaders have gained political office by birthright or by violence or by bribe or by insurrection And when that happens, it's more difficult to make the connection between the condition of the hearts of the people and the condition of the rulers who govern them. And while it's still true that God gives them leaders that reflect the collective heart of the people, you have to have the eyes to see because it's not so blatantly obvious. But in our case, the correlation is much more obvious because we actually choose our leaders. We have the exceptional privilege of casting votes so that the will of the people determines who governs us. So when you look at the leaders of our nation and of our state, it should be obvious that the collective heart of the people in our nation and state is a defiant one. It's defiant to God, it's defiant to his morality, to his justice, to his holiness, to his righteousness, to his compassion, to his discipline, his chastening, and pretty much everything else that's characteristic of God. It's a defiant attitude, a defiant heart. And this lamentable truth was just confirmed for us last week when the results of the recall election were published. In spite of the draconian measures Governor Newsom forced upon our state over the past 18 months, two-thirds of Californian voters chose to retain him as our governor. Two-thirds of Californian voters said, yes, we want more of this. Yes, we think draconian measures are good for us. Do you know what the word draconian means? has nothing to do with Dracula. It has to do with an ancient Athenian lawmaker named Draco. In the seventh century BC, Draco overhauled the legal system in Athens. And what resulted was exceedingly harsh legislation. Draco thought that harshness would produce peace and safety in the city. And so he punished minor offenses as if they were major offenses. And he used fear and intimidation to try to suppress what he determined to be undesirable behavior. Now, Draco's failed government has been studied by political theorists over the years, and in the 19th century, the adjective draconian or draconian was coined to describe any legislation or any government, any intervention into the affairs of the governed that is excessively harsh, severe, or oppressive to the people. Governor Newsom's handling of the coronavirus has been draconian. He's imposed harsh, severe, and oppressive mandates upon the citizens of our states. He took it upon himself to determine which businesses and organizations are essential to society, as well as which ones are not. And in so doing, he put thousands of private business owners out of business. He put hundreds of thousands of employees out of work. He closed down churches. He restricted landlords from evicting tenants of the property that they own, their private property. And he forced a host of other mandates upon us, some of which have already been ruled as violations of our constitutional freedoms. And now he's requiring healthcare workers and state employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccination regardless of whether they want the vaccination, regardless of their personal choice in the matter. It's either get vaccinated or find a job in a different industry that doesn't, as of today, require the COVID vaccine. But that may change, as we well know. Governor Newsom has been changing the rules and moving the goalposts for the past 18 months. And so who's to say that the person who switches jobs, switches occupations to an industry that does not have mandatory vaccine requirements We'll not be facing the same problem in a couple months. As I said, last week, two thirds of Californian voters affirmed that this is the man that should be in the governor's office. Two thirds. But that means that there are one third of Californian voters who do not want this man in the governor's office. One third of Californian voters believe that this man is draconian. He's harsh, he's severe, he's an oppressive governor who's laying heavy burdens upon those he governs. Our sermon text is written for those people. It's written for the one third who are concerned about draconian rulers, whether they occupy the governor's office, the president's office, a church office, or the boss's office. Our sermon text says to such people, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. And the fear of man is, that's spoken of in verse 25, takes many different forms. One of the most common forms is people-pleasing. People-pleasing is when your decision-making is based upon the approval you expect to receive from the people that you think are important. For example, a teenager goes shoe shopping with his mom. She has him try on a $40 pair of New Balance shoes, and he admits they fit good and they're comfortable, but he says he needs the $120 pair of Nikes because that's what all the cool kids are wearing. And in this case, the teen's decision-making is being driven by the anticipated approval of his peers. Should he wear the right shoes? Those peers whose opinions he considers to be important. And so he pleads with his mom to purchase the more expensive shoes even though they aren't really as comfortable as the less expensive shoes. But that was never the criteria. That's people pleasing. And that's the form of fearing man or man fearing. The teen fears that he won't get the approval of his peers if he's not wearing the right shoes. And this same fear of man will drive that same teen his decision making on what pants to wear, what shirt to wear, how to style his hair, which phone to carry, what gets posted on social media, and so on and so on. And when you see a person whose dress and speech and social behavior are driven by the latest trends and fads within his peer group, then that's a person whose life is controlled by the fear of man. That's a person whose life is being controlled by the fear of man. And that person is trying to define who he is, what he's worth, and what he should do by the people that he most wants approval from, which is just another way of saying that his fear of not receiving approval from certain people is what makes him try to define himself according to the values those people think are important. Well, this is a very common form of fearing man, but it's not the only form of fearing man. It's the fear of man that stops us from sharing the gospel with certain people. It's the fear of man that prevents us from taking a public stand for righteousness. It's the fear of man that hinders us from admonishing other Christians who are living in open sin. The fear of man can silence us when we should be speaking out. It can paralyze us when we should be taking action. And it can make us run when we should be standing our ground. At this particular time and place in history, many Christians are struggling with a form of fear of man that is fearful of what our draconian civil rulers are doing. The fear is that these civil rulers will continue to issue executive orders that systematically strip away our rights and freedoms. And it's not very difficult to see how that has already been happening over the past 18 months. Nor is it very difficult to see where this might go in the very near future. People who have formerly lived under communism can see very clearly what is happening in America. These people, however, have stopped warning us some time ago, saying, you know, this is how it all begins. They've stopped warning us that this is how it all begins because our nation has passed the beginning stages of losing our republic. Now these people are warning America is sliding down the slippery slope and picking up speed as we go. Ten days ago, President Joe Biden informed us that his job as a president is to protect all Americans. That's exactly what he said. My job as president is to protect all Americans. Now I wish I could be one of those reporters who gets the rare chance of asking our president a pre-screened question because the question I would ask him is whether the unborn are Americans. But Biden wasn't thinking about the unborn when he made that comment, he was thinking about the unvaccinated. His point was that his job is to protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated. So he announced mandatory vaccinations for all federal employees and contractors, as well as all the workforces, the entire workforce of any private company with 100 employees or more. Now, anticipating the reaction from freedom-loving Americans who hold sincere convictions against such mandatory vaccinations, President Biden said, this is not about freedom or personal choice. This is not about freedom or personal choice, he assured us. Now, how do we interpret that? I think the only way we can interpret it is that President Biden thinks that it's his job to protect America from Americans exercising their freedoms and making personal choices. His solution to Americans making personal choices that he doesn't agree with is to take away the freedom to make personal choices. He said in that same address that was given 10 days ago, that if his administration, he was talking about how his administration is frustrated with people making personal choices that he disagrees with, the personal choice to refuse the vaccine. And speaking in an explicitly biting tone, our president said to the unvaccinated in our country, We've been patient, referring to his administration. We've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us. Now it's understandable why Christians would be fearful with this type of tyranny happening under our nose, or I should say in our face. We know that this administration has no intentions of ending these draconian measures, these draconian mandates anytime soon. As one Christian commentator put it, this is just the dress rehearsal. The slow boil of tyranny continues. One day, it won't be a vaccine mandate, it will be a prohibition for openly living out our faith. Now I submit to you that this is already a prohibition for openly living out our faith because many of you have chosen not to receive the vaccine based upon your heartfelt religious convictions. And it's not just about the vaccine. What about when Governor Newsom shut down our churches? That was a prohibition against openly living out our Christian faith. But I totally agree with what the commentator says in his statement that this is just a dress rehearsal. The slow boil of tyranny does indeed continue. And it's the slow boil that has the ability to invoke fear, the fear of man in so many Christians. And so what should our response be? If not the fear of man, then what? The fear of God. You fight fear with fear. You fight the fear of man with the fear of God. Fear is one of those words that has different meanings. It's like the word jealous. We normally think of jealousy as a sinful thing, but the Bible says that God is a jealous God, right? And to make sense of this, we need to know that there is a sinful form of jealousy and a righteous form of jealousy. The sinful form of jealousy is being envious of somebody else's achievements and advantages like, when the evil queen became jealous of Snow White's beauty. The righteous form of jealousy is protective over a mutually exclusive relationship, like the husband who protects the intimate relationship he has with his wife. We can say that the husband is jealous not to share his wife's affections with other men, and that's a good thing. That's a really good thing. Husbands should be jealous in this way, just as wives should be jealous in the same way pertaining to their husband's affections. So when God says that he's a jealous God, what he's saying is that he doesn't want us to give our affections to other gods. He wants us to be completely and entirely devoted to him. And that's a good thing. That jealousy of God is good. Well, the word fear is similar in the sense that it has a sinful meaning and a righteous meaning. It's sinful, according to the Bible, to fear man. But it's good and proper to fear God. And I've already defined what it means to fear man. That takes many forms, from being influenced by peer pressure, to not wanting to stand apart from the crowd, to being afraid that somebody's gonna hurt you or kill you or take something away from you. Fearing the Lord is different than that. This means, fearing the Lord means experiencing awe and reverence for the beauty and holiness and majesty of God. It's having respect for God. It's being in willful submission to God. It's trusting him for your security. And since trusting in the Lord is part of what it means to fear the Lord, we can paraphrase verse 25, our sermon text, this way. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever fears the Lord shall be safe. That's an allowable, justifiable paraphrase. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever fears the Lord shall be safe. In what ways does the fear of man bring us into a snare? Well, we've actually answered this question already. It silences us when we should be speaking out. It paralyzes us when we should be taking action. And it makes us run when we should be standing our ground. But in what ways does the fear of the Lord keep us safe? Well, this answer is not quite as obvious. Sometimes it's easier to begin an answer by explaining what it's not. The safety we enjoy by fearing the Lord is not necessarily physical safety. Sometimes God provides physical safety for those who fear him, like he did for Daniel in the lion's den, like he did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, but sometimes God allows his people, the very people who fear him, the very people who put their security in him or look to him for their security, look to him for safety, sometimes God allows those people to be injured and killed Peter and James were both arrested by Herod. James was executed with a sword, and Peter was supernaturally freed from prison by an angel sent by God. Or consider the men and women listed at the end of Hebrews 11. They were tortured. They endured trials and mockings and scourgings. They were in prison. They were stoned to death. They were sawn in two. They were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented. They were exiled to deserts and mountains, living in dens and caves. Yet all of these people, every single one of them is heralded for their faith in God, for having feared God. So obviously the promise of safety that our sermon text gives to us, to those who fear God, is not physical safety. which means if you fear God rather than fearing man, this is not a guarantee that you're not going to experience physical suffering. You may experience the same thing that those faithful men and women at the end of Hebrews 11 experienced. You may be mocked. You may be put on trial. You may be imprisoned. You may be killed. You may be exiled from your job, from your home, from your community to the degree that you'll be living in the modern day equivalent of dens and caves and deserts and mountains. That's the potential reality of fearing God and not fearing man. This is worthy of deep reflection and contemplation because American Christians have had it so good for so long that we've grown up accustomed to the physical safety that we have enjoyed. Consequently, many of us have this unchallenged assumption in the back of our minds. We really didn't think it through. It's just an assumption we've grown up with because we've never known persecution. We've only known prosperity and peace, that this physical safety is part of God's program. that there's something drastically awry in the universe if we have to suffer physically at the hands of an evil oppressor. Brothers and sisters, read through your Bibles and take note of how often God's people suffer physically at the hand of evil oppressors. It's nearly constant. It's nearly constant. The norm is for God's people to be suffering at the hands of evil oppressors, and the exception is for God's people to enjoy brief periods of peace and prosperity. Our nation has been blessed with peace and prosperity for many, many years, but there's nothing in the Bible that would suggest that we'll continue enjoying this physical peace and prosperity tomorrow. There's no guarantee, there's no promise, there's nothing that would cause us to draw that conclusion. In fact, there's much in the Bible that would suggest we will not experience physical peace and prosperity tomorrow. What exactly am I referring to? I'm referring to the statement Jesus made in John 15, verses 18 and 19. If the world hates you, "'You know that it hated me before it hated you. "'If you were of the world, the world would love its own. "'Yet because you are not of the world, "'but I chose you out of the world, "'therefore the world hates you.'" This is where we live, in a world that hates us. Jesus then goes on in the next verse to say, remember, remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. So did they persecute Jesus? Yes, they did. Then does that mean that we should expect to be persecuted as well? Yeah, that's what Jesus is saying right here. We should expect that. In fact, that's what 2 Timothy 3.12 explicitly says. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Even the apostle John, the apostle who was likely told that he would not suffer a violent death, even John wrote in 1 John 3.13, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Do not be surprised. Do not be surprised that the world hates you. I think a lot of Christians are surprised that the world hates them. I think a lot of Christians desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus, but they don't expect to suffer persecution. And if this is your mindset, then you've been putting yourself in a position where you're much more likely to fall into the snare of fearing man. How so? Because if persecution is not part of your possible and acceptable outcomes to a given situation, then you're much more likely to make sinful concessions when you're navigating through a situation where God is calling you to endure persecution. Let me say that again because this is an important point. If your, if persecution, is not part of your possible and acceptable outcomes to a given situation, then you're much more likely to make sinful concessions when you're navigating through a situation where God is calling you to endure persecution. And let me prove this point by citing Matthew 10.28. Matthew 10.28 is a passage you've heard me cite many years, many times over the years. If you've been in this church for a while, you've heard me cite this one. It says, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both the soul and body in hell. Now Matthew is doing a play on words here. He's using both definitions of the word fear in this one verse. When he says, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, he's writing about the sinful fear of man. And when he says, but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, he's writing about the righteous fear of God. It's the exact same point that our sermon text is making. It's the New Testament equivalent of our Old Testament sermon text. Do not fear man, fear the Lord. But Matthew's version is more explicit than our sermon text in its description of the harm that man can do to us. Matthew's version is more explicit in the harm that man can do to us. Man can kill our bodies. That's what Matthew's telling us. That's what Jesus is telling in Matthew's recording. Man can kill our bodies. And that's a pretty big deal. That's something that we should take note of. I think we can all agree that to have your life taken from you by a wicked person is a significant thing. Yet as significant as that is, Jesus is telling us not to be afraid of it. He's telling us that we might end up being martyred for our faith and we should not be afraid of that. We should not be afraid of that because the absolute worst thing another man can do to you is to kill your physical body. But they cannot kill your soul. Which is to say they cannot separate you from the love of Christ. And regardless of what sinful men do to us on earth, regardless of what draconian civil rulers do to us on this earth, whether they mock us, whether they scourge us, whether they imprison us, whether they saw us in two, whether they slay us with a sword, or exile us to deserts and mountains to live in caves and dens, they cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, We need to accept that all forms of persecution might be part of our future. Physical persecution I'm talking about. We need to accept that fearing God rather than fearing man might include losing your job. It might include losing your house. It might include losing your retirement or losing your physical life. When you're willing to accept this, knowing that the worst thing our draconian civil rulers can possibly do is help you qualify for the martyr's crown, then the temptation to fear man will be greatly diminished in your life. But if you perceive danger and aggression as forthcoming from our draconian civil rulers, and you're clinging to your job, you're clinging to your house, you're clinging to your retirement, you're clinging to your life, as if it was unthinkable that you would lose any of those things, then the temptation to fear man is going to be overpowering for you. You're gonna be so afraid of what might happen to you that you'll be silenced when you should be speaking out, you'll be paralyzed when you should be taking action, and you'll run when you should be standing your ground. So in answer to the question of what type of safety is promised to us in verse 25 in our sermon text, we must know that God is not promising physical safety on this earth. It should be apparent that he is promising us spiritual safety. a spiritual safety that's characterized by internal peace as we walk through the trials and persecutions of this earthly life. And then that safety continues with an everlasting joy as we enter into the next life. Jesus promised this internal peace to his followers in John 16, verse 33. These things I have spoken to you so that in me, Jesus, you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage. I, Jesus, have overcome the world. Does this mean that we need to just lay down and let the draconian rulers run over us with their executive mandates and tyrannical policies? No, not at all. We should fight. We should fight against these evils. We should fight in whatever ways are righteous and God-honoring, which means we fight through the power of prayer. And we fight through singing war songs against these tyrants. And we fight in the civil courts. And we fight through peaceful public protests. And we fight by lobbying for righteous reform. And we fight by writing blogs and producing TikTok videos. And we fight by rebuking our elected officials. And we fight by preaching the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. But we do not fight because we're fearful of man. And we do not fight because we are unwilling to suffer persecution for the sake of Christ. We fight because we're defending the truth. We fight because we're rising up against evil. We fight because we're advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And as such, we hold our achievements and our possessions in this world very loosely in our hand. And if the Lord sees fit that these things should be taken from us, then so be it. That's the Lord's decision. Our life on this earth is not about materialism. He who dies with the most toys does not win. The winner, according to Hebrews 12, verses one and two, is the person who lays aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us and runs the race with endurance, the race that has been set before us, looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.