This morning we are returning for one last time, I hope, I think, to the subject of the proper fear of God, or a longer version, more accurately, learning to defeat fear by learning to fear God. Learning to defeat other fears by learning to fear God. Fearfulness is a problem for most people. It's a major emotional and spiritual dilemma for a great many people in our world. And the only true remedy, I know you can take drugs for that kind of thing, mind-numbing drugs, and I suppose you could be hypnotized or you could be told how to think positively, but the only real remedy for the problem of fear is to develop and maintain a proper view of God. To develop and maintain an awe for the Lord. And that's what the Bible means by the fear of God. The fear of God is very simply to give God the worship that he deserves. to live in the awe of who God is. We've considered several aspects of the proper fear of God, what it involves, and we're now discussing the matter of trusting God. We had to take a break and we will resume and hopefully finish that this morning. No one possesses a true fear of God, who does not trust God. To fear God, to respect God as God, means that we trust him. We trust him because he has commanded us to trust him. We trust him because he's the only being in the world, in the universe, who is absolutely trustworthy. And we trust him because he has made pledges and commitments to us that we can trust, to which we can hold. Trusting God means that we bow humbly to acknowledge that he is omnipotent, he has all power, and he is absolutely sovereign. Trusting God requires that we acknowledge that God has control, perfect, complete control over all things, the whole of creation and the whole of history. And that necessarily means that God controls things that seem out of control, like war. natural disasters, the weather, sickness. God controls all these things. They don't just happen. It may seem random to us, it may seem without meaning to us, but that is not the case. God controls all things. Now there's one last element of God's control that we need to discuss for our peace. It's a very difficult subject for us, but it's a very important subject. And that is God's control over people. God's control over people. Now as people, as humans, we have trouble with the idea that God has absolute control over people. Because we suppose that any such control would necessarily render us to be little more than robots, machines, It would take away our will. It would take away our freedom. Our lives would become mechanical with God pushing the buttons. And so we dispute the idea of God's control over people and theological wars have been fought and are still being fought over that matter. Now it's striking that the Bible doesn't treat this as a major problem. As far as I know, the only text that raises the dispute is Romans chapter nine. And if you go to Romans chapter nine and you hope for a philosophical satisfaction of the dilemma, you're gonna go away disappointed. You see, the Bible, God's word, does not acknowledge any conflict regarding the reality that God is so big, God is so great, God is so powerful, that he controls human wills and human actions without violating either the freedom or the responsibility of the individual person. We're not robots. We're not machines. God is not pushing buttons. We are thinking and acting voluntarily and freely. But God is so big and so great and so powerful that he is controlling us even as we do and think what we wish. in any given circumstance, and remember, all circumstances are controlled by God. In any given circumstance, every human being does what he freely decides to do. And yet, what he freely decides to do is what God has decreed. Well, how can that be? Well, the Bible doesn't explain that. It simply states it as a fact and states it as a fact without embarrassment. Now, in our extremely limited understanding, and that's a problem that we refuse to admit, We think our understanding encompasses everything. No, no. Our understanding is very, very small and limited. But in our extremely limited understanding, we view this as a metaphysical problem, a philosophical problem. Perhaps we even think it's impossible. God cannot control us and we be utterly free at the same time. The Bible doesn't treat that as a difficulty. The Bible treats it as a mystery, a mystery. Basil Manly, one of the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention, is quoted as saying this about mysteries in the Bible. Quote, the scriptures do not undertake to explain mysteries. They leave them unexplained. There is a difference between difficulties and mysteries. Difficulties may be removed. Mysteries cannot be removed without a new revelation or the bestowment of a higher intellect. Maybe we'll understand mysteries in heaven. but maybe not. I'm fully convinced we're not gonna understand everything in heaven, because God's gonna be God, and we're gonna be human. Well, the plan of our study now is I wanna talk about the importance of this subject a little bit, and then I wanna show you that the Bible demonstrates God's control over people And then that the Bible shows that God so controls people that what they do ultimately serves the good of his saints. And then fourthly, I want to show you that God requires that we trust him with respect to people. Well, first of all, the importance of the subject. I think for most of us, the single largest factor in determining our moods, day in and day out, our subjective state, day in and day out, is the presence and the behavior of other people. A morning argument with a spouse or with a child, with a sibling, a brother, a sister, an early morning argument with a roommate can cast a cloud over the entire day. By the same token, a compliment, a word of praise from a teacher, a professor, a superior at work, can make our day. One can ruin our day, the other can make our day, and it all has to do with what people say to us. If Facebook serves any purpose, it's to reveal the human psyche. And it proves that for a great many people, they are fully absorbed in the pursuit of winning attention and admiration from other people. You just read Facebook, look at the pictures. The 4,000 pictures that people post of themselves. And you can tell, they want somebody to say, you're pretty, you're handsome, you're smart, you're tough, you're independent, whatever. The question, I wonder how people see me. I wonder what people think of me. That's a dominating question for a lot of folk. And there are a lot of folk in front of me right now, young people and not so young people, who are tormented by that question. What do people think about me? Do they think I'm smart? Do they think I'm pretty? Stupid question. Do they think that I'm godly? What do they think? It bothers you. It haunts you. It controls you. It determines what you do. It determines what you say. It even determines what you wear. I remember when I was in high school, ninth, tenth grade, there was a fad. There were always fads. I have fads now? Fads in school? Okay. had a fad, and the fad was matching shirts and socks. And there were only two options. You had to wear a navy blue shirt with navy blue socks, preferably with khaki pants and a madras belt. Or you had to wear a yellow shirt with yellow socks. and khaki pants and a mattress belt. And if you didn't wear one of those combinations, you weren't cool. And people wouldn't think very highly of you. Well, it bothered me because I didn't have a Navy shirt and I didn't have a yellow shirt. And I bugged my parents until I got one or the other. I think it was Navy. Now, how stupid was that? I felt self-conscious going to school without my navy shirt or a yellow shirt and without a mattress belt. I felt inferior. I felt that people were staring at me and laughing about me. Now, it doesn't happen to you, does it? But you know, sometimes, sometimes the question of what people think about us is much more than a matter of ego. There are people who seem to have the control over our lives, or people who seem to have the ability to ruin our lives or to make our lives. Teachers control whether we make the National Honor Society or not. Coaches determine whether we make the team, although I guess now in our society, everybody makes the team. But coaches decide whether you play or not, whether you get on the field or on the court or not. There are people somewhere that are sitting in a room determining whether or not you get in college. And there are people who decide whether or not you will get a job. And there are people who decide whether or not you will be promoted on your job. It seems at times that our entire lives are being run by other people. and decided by whether or not they like us. So this is an important subject. For most of us, the question very simply is this. Will people control us or will we trust God to control people for our good? How we think about life, how we think about people will be determined by how we answer that question. Will people control us, or will we trust God to control people for our good? If we don't trust God in this matter, then some bad things are predictable. Turn to Proverbs 29, please. Proverbs chapter 29, and I'm gonna have to ask you to turn to several texts, so I hope you'll have your Bibles ready to go. Proverbs 29, verse 25. The fear of man brings a snare. but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. The fear of man, putting man on the throne, leads you into a trap, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe and secure from that trap. Now, what kind of bad things are likely to happen to us if we fear men? Well, for one thing, we may be utterly dominated by worry and anxiety. What kind of control do you have over other people? Have you figured out a way to make other people like you? To make everybody like you? Have you figured out a way? Well, maybe if you gave everyone you know a million dollars, they'd like you for a week, maybe. Something else that's likely to happen if we fear people. We will become people pleasers. people pleasers dominated by the effort. Our lives will be ruined by the effort of doing, saying, wearing what we think other people want us to do, say, and wear. Trying to fit in with other people and their expectations of us. And if we become men pleasers, it's a very short step from pleasing men to running headlong into the will of God. Because what people want out of you is very often what God forbids for you. And what God demands from you is very often what people dislike and reject. A third thing that's likely to happen if we become, if we are dominated by the fear of men, we become manipulators. schemers, seeking ways to control people so that we get the results from them that we want, that we need. We become manipulative. We determine instead of people controlling us, we will control people. We will control. Instead of being controlled, we will control. And so even the people we serve, we serve in order to gain a measure of control. Have you ever known a manipulative person? I have. I've known some godly people who were manipulators. And the funny thing was, You know, I think they actually thought they knew what was best for people. They actually thought they knew what was better for people than the people knew themselves. So they were constantly trying to shove people in this way or manipulate them in that way to get them in a place that they thought was best for them. And I'm not sure if they ever realized that people knew what they were doing. People realized what they were doing. At least I did. I'm probably the dumbest guy in the block. I figured it out. A fourth thing that is likely to happen if you were dominated by people, and this is the most regrettable of all, you will become a hater of people. just a matter of time, you will become a hater. You will become suspicious and resentful toward people. You will become a cynic, and particularly regarding people that you can't make love you. No matter what you do, they don't seem to love you. They don't give you the feedback you want, and you will come to hate such people. Well, I hope you realize these are all bad responses. All these responses are in conflict with the commands of God. God commands that we love our neighbor as ourselves. That's what God, God even commands that we love and bless our enemies. Our enemies, we're to love and do good to our enemies. Most of all, God calls us to love himself above everything else, including people. We are to love him best of all. In fact, the great cause of our lives is to be the cause of bringing everybody we can to have higher thoughts of God, not higher thoughts of ourselves. That's not why we're here. That's not why Jesus died for us, so we can be popular and gain a following. No, it's so we can testify to his greatness and bring more people to worship him. The alternative to being controlled by other people and how they respond to you is to be controlled by God's love for you. To be controlled by the confidence that God rules over all things for your good as well as for his glory. Well now I want to turn from a discussion of how important this subject is, to show you the testimony of Scripture concerning God's control over people. Turn, maybe you're still in Proverbs, go to chapter 21, Proverbs 21, verse one. Proverbs 21, one. The king's heart, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, the Lord turns the king's heart wherever he wishes. The farmer in irrigating his fields might dig irrigation canals or ditches to take water from some source, a pond, a lake, a well, take the water from that pond or lake or well and direct it into the place where he's going to plant his crops. He manipulates the flow of water to get it where he needs for it to be. The writer of Proverbs says that's what God does with the hearts of kings. He manipulates and controls and directs them according to his will. Now that was a staggering statement in the context in which it is written. Because kings in the ancient world, well they answered to no one. They had practically absolute power in their domains. They did what they wanted. That's why so often the only way to get rid of a king was to kill him. He didn't come up for re-election. The only way to get rid of a king was kill him. And that's why you have so many sons killing their king fathers. They got tired of waiting. When's the old man gonna die so I can be king? How do you get rid of a king? You kill him. That absolute power, as far as men were concerned. But God controls the heart of kings. Now, the logical inference is that if God controls the heart of the highest and the greatest and manipulates it like a farmer manipulates water in his fields, then surely he must do the same with the small people, the ordinary people, the far less powerful people. I'm fascinated by World War II. I don't know much about it. I'm just fascinated by World War II. And I've heard that it's no longer taught in public schools. Is that? That can't be right. Well, I hope that's not right. World War II is a fascinating study. There's a documentary on, Netflix, I think it was produced by the BBC. It's called World War II in Color. It's captivating, not because of the color, but because of the very plain way that it explains the progress of the war, both the Pacific theater and the European theater. Well, one of the things that that documentary makes very, very clear is that Adolf Hitler did some really stupid things toward the end of the war in Europe. Time and time again, he went against the counsel of his generals and commanders who were far smarter than he was. in terms of war strategy. They would tell him to do one thing, or they would tell him not to do something, and he would do just the opposite. And it cost him the war. Now, beloved, we missed the point in that fascinating bit of history. If we simply conclude that Adolf Hitler was an idiot, He was a madman, he was not an idiot. You look at what he did at the opening of the war when he took Czechoslovakia and Poland and Austria and France almost without firing a shot. He was brilliant. But when it came to the end, when all the stakes were on the table, he did dumb things. Why? And he did them freely. The Führer was doing what he wanted to do. God was controlling his thoughts and his will because God had determined he would not win. God had determined that Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany would be defeated. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Turn to Ezra, book of Ezra. When's the last time you were in Ezra? Do you know where it is? Go to the book of Psalms, count back four toward the beginning, you'll be in Ezra. Ezra chapter one. Ezra one, verse one. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, so that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom. Also put it in writing, saying, thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given me. and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem. Israel was greatly diminished as a nation. They had spent 70 years in captivity. Two generations of Jews have lived in a foreign land where God commanded them to assimilate, to buy land, build houses, seek the good of that people. but now it's time for Israel to be returned to their own land. And it's time for God's temple to be reconstructed. So how does God bring that about? Well, he moves upon the heart of a pagan king to authorize the building of the temple and to bless those who go from Babylon or wherever they are located, back to Judah, to Jerusalem, to build the temple. Look at verse one again. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing. Did he do that voluntarily? As he wrote that proclamation, as he sent it forth, was he thinking, I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't really want to do this. I just have this impulse. I got to do it. I don't know why. I don't want to. No, no, no. No, he was doing it voluntarily. He wanted to do it. Now, who was Cyrus? He was a pagan idol-worshiping monarch. This time in history, he was the most powerful man in the world. All the kingdoms were under his control. But how did it become so great? Isaiah wrote this about Cyrus. For Jacob, my servant's sake, for Israel, my elect, I have called you Cyrus by your name. I have named you. God literally named him before he was born. Though you have not known me, I am the Lord. There is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you. though you haven't known me, so that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting, there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I've taken you, I've created you, I've elevated you, I've given you power, and I'm gonna use you for the good of my people. But in the end, what I do with you will be a testimony to all men and all ages that I am God, and I do whatever I please. Later on, God put it into the heart of another pagan king, King Artaxerxes, to actually pay for the furnishings of the temple. out of the coffers of his kingdom or out of his own pocket. In Ezra chapter seven in verse 27, we read these words, blessed be the Lord God of our fathers who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. God says that he controls the heart of kings. Here are two kings, pagans, not believers in the living God, and they do the will of God. They serve the cause of God's kingdom, voluntarily. Why? Why? It makes no sense. because God stirred their hearts, because God moved them. Admittedly, this is a mystery. How does God do that? How does he move human beings to do what he ordains and yet moves them in such a way that they act voluntarily? How does he do that? He hasn't told us. And if he did, we wouldn't understand it. Do you have a problem with the fact there are things about God you can't understand? What? He's infinite, we're finite. If God exists, we should expect there'll be tons of things about God we don't understand. and you either accept the testimony of God or you try to reason with God and figure it out on your terms and bring God to your judgment seat and destroy your soul. Well, that's the first thing that we have to get locked into our minds. God sovereignly controls human beings. yet they remain free moral agents. Second thing in bringing us to trust God in this realm is to see that the Bible demonstrates that God controls people, not simply for his pleasure, but for the good of his saints. God controls people for the good of his saints. At this point, I'm gonna do something that I probably shouldn't do. I'm gonna read an extended portion from a book. I know that can be terribly boring, not any more boring than my preaching, but boring. But I ask you to listen, okay? It'll take me about four minutes. You can time me if that'll help you stay awake. But I want you to listen. This is taken from a book I recommended last time, Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. Great book. Mr. Bridges writes as follows. Picture yourself in this situation. You've been working for someone all your life. Your boss has been extremely cruel. Your wages have been barely at subsistence level. And you feel very downtrodden and oppressed. For all practical purposes, you're nothing more than a slave. Suddenly, You are freed from that almost unbearable situation. You're freed to leave, start life all over again. There's only one problem. You have no financial resources, no way to make the trip, no funds to start anew someplace else, no way to take advantage of this incredible opportunity. So, you go to your boss and ask him for money for the trip and money for getting started after you reach your new location. As far-fetched as it may sound, your boss gives you the money. He doesn't just give you a little, he gives you a lot. In fact, he gives you so much He impoverishes himself. Sounds like make-believe. Like a childhood happily ever after story. The kind that never happens in real life. Only this one did. Not in the exact details that I have used, but in principle. This story actually happened. It's recorded for us in the Bible in the book of Exodus. You know the story. The Israelites were cruelly oppressed, forced to make bricks without straw. Suddenly God intervenes in their lives and Pharaoh says, get out. But the Israelites had no resources for making the journey, for starting over again. They were poverty stricken. God had foreseen this problem, however, and had made plans to overcome it. He said to Moses, by way of prophecy in Exodus three, and I will make, listen, I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people. so that when you leave, you will not go empty handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters, and so you will plunder the Egyptians. And God did, What he said, in Exodus 12 we read, not prophecy, history. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. Now listen, the Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people and they gave them what they asked for So they plundered the Egyptians. Now this had just happened after 10 plagues had ravaged the land. You'd think the Egyptians would want to kill the Jews. Instead, they open up their treasure chest and give them everything they had. Why? Makes no sense. because God moved them, gave the Jews favor with them. Beloved, think about the implications of that piece of history. And if you think about it rightly, you'll come to the same conclusion as the Apostle Paul in Romans 8.31. What shall we say to these things if God is for us Who can be against us? Our Lord Jesus Christ is the theme, the subject of the whole Bible. He is the theme of the Old Testament. But the message about Christ in the Old Testament is not just about him as the Lamb of God sacrificing himself on the cross for our redemption. It is also a message about Christ as the King of Providence made head over all things for his church. You read these accounts, these Old Testament accounts, and you are to build your faith according to what they testify. Romans 15, four, whatever things were written before were written for our learning, our instruction in who God is and God's ways and purposes, so that, Paul says, we through the patience and comfort of the scripture might have hope. And what do you read? In the Old Testament, throughout the Old Testament, we have repeated accounts of God moving, controlling all grades of people from the ordinary citizens of Egypt to the greatest kings like Pharaoh, Cyrus, and Artaxerxes. God controls to move people to act for the good of his people. And so you see though Israel was small and weak, defenseless on their own throughout much of the Old Testament, yet they were in fact invincible so long as their ways pleased the Lord because he fought for them. in ways they couldn't see or understand or expect. He fought for them. He ruled the hearts of their enemies for their good. Okay. Are you with me? What's the conclusion? Where does that bring us? It brings us to this. God expects that we will trust him with respect to people. That we will not be filled with worry or anxiety, that we will not become men pleasers, that we will not become schemers and manipulators, and God forbid, we will not be haters. We will trust God. One last text, I think it's the last one. Jeremiah 39, would you turn to Jeremiah 39? This is one of those obscure passages. I want you to note the words that the prophet Jeremiah was commanded to speak to a man named Ebed-Melech. Who was Ebed-Melech? He was an Ethiopian eunuch who intervened in Jeremiah's behalf. When cruel men in the court of the king of Israel hated Jeremiah and put him in a dungeon, put him in a hole, where there was not food, it was damp, he was gonna get sick, there was not water to drink. Ebed-Melech went to the king in private, taking his head in his own hands, so to speak, and he intervened for Jeremiah. And the king granted him permission to go and lift Jeremiah out of that hole. And while Jeremiah was still in the hole, God told him to go to Ebed-Melech and speak these words. Look at verse 15. Meanwhile, the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, go and speak to Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring my words, words of judgment, upon this city for adversity, not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you. But, but, I will deliver you in that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in me, says the Lord. I behold all things are good and the evil. And I saw what this man did. how he risked his life for my profit. And I want you, my spokesman, to go and tell this man, he's gonna see judgment fall on Israel, but he will not feel it, he will not experience it. I will protect him. The men he will fear will come against him, but his life will be as a prize. because he trusted in me. Beloved, that's not an isolated example. This is how our Heavenly Father wants us to think about him, particularly in the face of people we fear, people who may have power to harm us. People who can say bad things and turn other people away from us. People who can take our livelihood from us. God says, I don't want you fearing those people. I want you trusting in me. In Psalm 31, we read these words. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of men. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has shown me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. Beloved, the way to be delivered from the tormenting fear of man that brings a snare is to trust God's power and God's control over all the people in your life. God controls all the people in your life and how they treat us, even how they think about us, God controls. Now, let me warn you. You could use that truth to your own destruction. You could say, well, that means it doesn't matter how I treat other people. I can treat them any way I want to because they can't hurt me. Because God's controlling them. That'd be wicked. That'd be presumptuous. God, through Paul, told the Corinthians, there must be divisions and strife among you so that those who are approved may be made manifest. Does God want strife in his church? No, God hates division, and yet God says there must be strife in the Corinthian church so that the people I approve will be made manifest, and by implication, the people I don't approve will be made manifest. You see, somebody in Corinth was not acting in love or according to the scriptures, and they thought they were doing good, and they were actually hanging themselves. You can't treat people the way you want to, and God's gonna make it work out for your good. He'll make it work out for their good maybe, maybe not for yours. Here's what God calls of us, from all of us. He calls us to love one another. He calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to love each other in the body of Christ the way he loved us. He calls us to love our enemies, pray for them, do good to our enemies, do good to all men. and love me supremely and serve me above all. That's what he calls us to do. So we have to be loving and forbearing and forgiving toward those who wrong us. And there are certain people we ought to run from. And the fact that God controls doesn't mean that it's safe for us to ignore his instructions. Flee from the angry man lest you learn his ways. Avoid the man who causes division. Some people we ought to run from. Most people we ought to love. and bear witness of Christ and bear witness of the gospel. And if they hate us and they belittle us, so what? Make them know Jesus. Bear witness to the truth. In every dispute, speak the truth in love. You see, as we labor to live blamelessly before God, not worried about the consequences in terms of what men may do or say, God will take care of that. God will take care of that. Jerry Bridges makes this statement. I close with this. I want you to think about this. He says God sometimes allows people to treat us unjustly. Sometimes he even allows their actions to seriously affect our careers or our futures viewed on a human plane. Listen, but God never allows people to make decisions about us that undermine His plan for us. God is for us. We are His children. He delights in us. Beloved, you're safe. You're safe. May God cause you to have faith and trust in your heavenly Father and in his love. Let's pray. Dear Father, I suspect, I suspect that there are people here who are tormented by the fear of man. and it has led them into numerous traps. Father, I ask you for the glory of your name and for the good of these dear people, that you will set them free, that you will give them appropriate hope and trust in you, and that they will become fixated on serving you honoring you, loving people the way you've commanded, serving Jesus, bearing witness of the gospel, speaking the truth in love without fretting over the response they will get, but trusting you to control the responses for their good, for your glory. Increase our faith. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. you you