Our New Testament scripture reading, this Lord's Day is from Acts chapter 26. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. And Paul stretched forth a hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews. especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, under which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come, for which hope say, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? I barely thought with myself. that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining around about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sin. and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both the small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come. That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning does make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am. Accept these bonds. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them. And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. Protect this Lord's day is from Proverbs chapter 28. Verse one. The wicked flee when no man pursueth. But the righteous are bold as a lion. When did fear in the heart of man first raise its ugly head in human history? When Adam sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, for we read in Genesis 3, verses 9 through 10, and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. because I was naked and I hid myself." You see there, when Adam's conscience tormented him with guilt, which caused him to hide from the very presence of God who came to commune with him in the cool of the evening. What was to be a time of precious communion with the living God took a terrible turn and became a time of guilt-inspired dread of the living God due to Adam's sin. and his fall. A guilty conscience can make men a terror even to themselves. Dear ones, when we are living in a guilt-ridden state, the last person very often with whom we want to be alone is ourselves. For then we have time to replay in our minds the sins that make us run from the Lord and flee from our own conscience. Can we not see, dear ones, that Sin and the guilt of sin make men cowards. What are your fears today? From what are you running? Are you trying to escape a guilty conscience? An overpowering individual or group of individuals? Do you fear the loss of work, family or home? Or perhaps you fear the ruin of your health or prestige? or freedom. You may fear the consequences of being right at times, and may fear the consequences of wrong decisions as well. Maybe you are overcome with a fear of war, the prospect of war, or the fear of death itself, or the fear of eternal death in hell. Regardless of what our fears may be today, we want, by God's grace, to face our fears eyeball to eyeball and learn the divine way to overcome being cowards and running from our fears. The main points from our text this Lord's Day are the following. First of all, the wicked are overcome by fear. Proverbs 28.1, the first part of that verse. And secondly, the righteous are overcomers by faith. Proverbs 28.1, the last part of the verse. First of all then, the wicked are overcome by fear. Proverbs 28.1a, that is the first part of the verse, says, the wicked flee when no man pursueth. When King Solomon states that the wicked flee when no man pursueth, we are to understand this to be a characteristic of those who are the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a character trait of those who are foes and adversaries of Jesus Christ. For all of us, by nature, are like Adam who hid in fear before receiving the promise of grace through Jesus Christ. It is part and parcel of our fallen nature to run in fear. In fact, one of the sins that is especially noted as being a part of those who stand before God on that final day of judgment and will be cast into hell for that sin is found in Revelation 21.8. There it lists these sins, and the very first sin is significant. But the fearful, that is cowards, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Try as man will to disguise his fear by laughter, by anger, with his wealth, by becoming drunk, through his pleasures, by becoming a bodybuilder, by engaging in martial arts, or even hypnosis. God states that fear, due to the fall of man into sin, Fear is bred into the very fabric of man's nature because of his sin and his guilt. For the wicked cannot ultimately deal with the root of fear, namely sin and the guilt of sin. It says in Proverbs 28.1, the wickeds leave when no man pursueth. So what are they running from if no man is pursuing them? Most likely, it is their own guilty conscience that pursues them. It is the sin which they have committed that pursues them, when even no man pursues them. Now, I should point out that fear, like sin in general, is not completely eradicated from the heart of the righteous. who trust alone in Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation. A sinful fear, dread, terror, worry, and anxiety yet plague the Christian in various ways throughout his or her life. You remember, out of fear, Peter and the other disciples of Christ fled to save their own necks when Christ was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter even denied, shamefully, knowing the Lord his Savior. Not once, but three times, out of fear of what man might do to him. The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian, therefore, is not that in the Christian there is no fear, whereas in the non-Christian there is fear, but rather the difference relates to the fact that the Christian has a remedy to his fear. He has grace appropriated. Christ has already secured for the Christian the benefits and the graces to overcome his worry and his anxieties and his fears. Fear has, in principle, already been conquered as all sin, in principle, has been conquered through Jesus Christ. The power of sin has been dealt a deathly blow through the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what distinguishes the Christian from the non-Christian as it relates to fear. That's why we read in Romans chapter eight, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And that's why we read later on in that same chapter, these encouraging words. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Listen closely. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, Can any of these things cast us into despair to such an extent that we are actually separated from the love of Jesus Christ? Verse 37 says, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. That is because Christ has overcome all of these things in His death and His resurrection. We too, being united to Him through faith, are overcomers. We are not victims. We do not have to run and hide. We can, by God's grace, look our fears straight in the face, and we can say, I am an overcomer of that fear through Jesus Christ. Because Christ conquered, I am a conqueror. I am not a victim. I do not need to be a coward. Verse 38 and 39 of Romans 8 say, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is a promise, dear ones, that we can cling to whenever our fears would overwhelm us. You see, the work of justification, God declaring us righteous and pardoning us of all of our sins, and the work of sanctification, wherein we become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, has as one of its benefits to replace the torment of fear with an ever-increasing enjoyment of Christ's love. That is, again, what replaces fear. You want to replace fear, learn to enjoy the love of God. For we read in 1 John, chapter 4, These words. Verse 18 says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not perfect in love. The fact that we still fear shows that we have not yet been made perfect in love. We may be growing in love, but we have not been made perfect in love. And to the degree that we do love God and understand the love of God and appreciate the love of God that is manifest unto us in the covenant of grace, to that degree we will overcome fears and worries and anxieties in our own lives. Because we'll be able to cast with complete confidence everything in our lives upon the lap of the Lord. and know that He can do us no ill, He can do us no wrong, He can do us no harm because He loves us so perfectly and completely as His own dear children purchased unto Him by the death of His own dear Son. It is indeed one of the tools which Satan will use against the believer in his or her weakness, to resurrect various fears and worries in his or her life. Satan will lead the believer to fear the God of his salvation with a slavish fear. Satan will move to cast the believer in his mind back under the covenant of works, under the condemning and avenging wrath of God. so that he views or she views him or herself as not being acceptable before God on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone, but rather on the basis in addition to Christ's righteousness, his own righteousness in some way, his own good works, his own graces, his own gifts in some way. Dear ones, when we are thrown back under the covenant of words in our own mind, we can almost count on being cast into fear, and into worry, and into anxiety. But while we are safe and secure in the covenant of grace, there we find absolute safety, and confidence, and boldness, and courage, There the Lord builds us up and makes us strong as we continue to draw strength from the covenant of grace. I'd like to, in order to understand what fear is, I'd like to distinguish between a sinful fear and a wholesome fear. First of all, I'd like to talk about what a wholesome fear is. So we're going to look at what sinful fear is not. First of all, a due respect for lawful authority is not sinful fear. Proverbs 24, 21, God says, the king. Not only the Lord, but fear the king. This applies to all lawful authority, whether in the family or in the church or at work or in the civil realm. For it is founded upon the fifth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother. This is a wholesome fear to fear the king, to fear parents, to have a Wholesome, healthy respect for those who have lawful authority over you. That's a good fear. Second, a cautious determination to avoid danger, sin, or temptation is not sinful fear. A cautious determination to avoid that which will hurt you, in effect, both bodily and spiritually, is not sinful fear. This is actually a keeping of the sixth commandment wherein we are taught to endeavor by all lawful means to preserve our own life, body and soul, and the life of others. Therefore fleeing persecution in order to preserve one's life is not sinful in and of itself as long as the testimony for Jesus Christ is not abandoned. nor forsaken in the process. For Jesus says in Matthew 10.23, when they persecute you in this city, flee to another city. So fleeing persecution, avoiding that which is dangerous to both body and soul, is not a sinful fear in and of itself. Thirdly, a serious concern or burden for oneself or for others is not sinful fear. Paul exhorts this by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 6 verse 2. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. I dare say that we cannot bear the burdens of others if we do not take their burdens seriously. If the burden doesn't have some degree of weight upon us, that's what a burden is, it has some weight to it, and some weightiness. You see, God places such burdens upon our hearts, not that we might plunge ourselves into fear, but rather cast ourselves and others upon the strong arm of the Lord. Beloved, it is when we do not cast these burdens upon the Lord that we are led into sinful worry and anxiety. For God has told us in 1 Peter 5, 7 that we are to cast all of our cares upon Him, for He careth for us. And so when we continue to carry the weight, the burdens of others in such a way that we are deterred from our own spiritual and godly duties, so that we are led into a sinful fear where we do not cast it upon the Lord, but we in effect take it upon ourselves and we're going to just bear this burden all by ourselves. then it does become sin. But to have a serious concern or burden for others is not sin or sinful fear in and of itself. And then fourthly, a holy reverence for the triune God is not a sinful fear. In fact, David declares in Psalm 19, verse 9, The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Solomon, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says in Proverbs 9, verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It says earlier that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. We would know God, and if we would know how to apply the knowledge of God, the Lord says we must fear Him. This fear of God that is not a sinful fear, as we're speaking of at this time, is a holy fear. It's an awe and a wonder in the very presence of God. It is to stand in utter amazement and astonishment at God's greatness and His glory as He has revealed Himself, His holiness, as we consider that even the seraphim cover their eyes with two of their wings before the holiness of God. So we ought to, before the Lord, have the same attitude. We stand in awe of God's mercy, the absolute perfection of all of His attributes. If I were to summarize this fear, it is to take God ever so seriously. Do not take God lightly. Do not take God flippantly, frivolously. to look upon God and all that we find in His Word in a very serious way, so that it actually affects our whole emotions and passions. We continue to read of people who stood in the presence of God and falling down as dead. And God continually appearing to those in some form and assuring them, be not afraid, because it was, in fact, a kind of fear that just overcame them in the presence of God. But he assures them, don't have that type of fear where you're not going to want to flee to me or to come into my presence. This fear of God that we're speaking of, is one in which we treat Him with all due respect. We avoid all disrespect and irreverence by our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. We seek to preserve the infinite dignity of His name and everything by which He reveals Himself. That is what sinful fear is not. What is sinful fear? Sinful fear is an overwhelming terror. A terror that we have of Satan, of man, a terror of sin, of judgment, of death, or any other circumstance in life or death. It is a horror. It is being overwhelmed like a flood by these fears. It is to be controlled by our fears, led by our fears, tormented by our fears. And certainly a sin, as I said at the outset of the sermon, which we as Christians can fall into. Remember how Elijah, after winning such a glorious victory on Mount Carmel, before Ahab, where The prophets of Baal sought to invoke Baal to bring fire down from heaven and to consume the sacrifice. And when Elijah put the challenge to the prophets of Baal and his turn came, he invoked God, having first poured several barrels of water upon the sacrifice, filling the altar about it with water. and simply called upon the Lord in meekness and sincerity and truth, and God hearing that prayer and sending fire from heaven and consuming and licking up the water that was all around the altar and consuming the sacrifice as one that was acceptable unto Him. And then God, shortly thereafter, as Elijah had indicated to King Ahab that there would be three and a half years without water, drought upon the entire land. He goes and he pleads with God. Now that Israel, as a result of this victory, had indicated verbally that they would own God to be their God, having seen what God had done in the presence of this altar of Baal. So, God sends an answer to Elijah's prayer. God sends rain, a mighty rain. But after all these victories that God had just won for Elijah, he gets wind that Ahab has told Jezebel of what God had done and how he had destroyed these prophets of Baal. And Jezebel says, if he's living by this time tomorrow, in effect, let my life be taken. It was like a death threat. It was like a self-maladictory oath that she took to see that Elijah be killed. And that, after God had shown and demonstrated His power and His greatness, we see the weakness of flesh in which Elijah flees and flees and runs and runs to get from the presence of Jezebel. The Lord has to encourage is prophet, that he will be with him. He will sustain him. He is his strength. And so we see, dear ones, not only is sinful fear an overcoming terror. Sinful fear, secondly, is a worry. And we may classify this into such a lower category that we don't even consider this to be a sin. But sinful fear is a worry or anxiety that we cannot cast upon the Lord. It is rather a preoccupation with a person, event, or circumstance that leads us to trust in the arm of flesh, in the gifts and graces of man to find our help and comfort, rather than casting ourselves upon the Lord. So that is sinful fear as well, worry or anxiety that cannot be cast upon the Lord. Thirdly, sinful fear is a slavish dread of a condemning God. When we, due to a guilty conscience, even as the children of God, cast ourselves again in our minds under the covenant of works, Our mind, our conscience is set aflame in a fire. And this servile fear may result from that mere action on our part, where we do not consider that all of our righteousness is from Jesus Christ. Where we do not cling to alone the righteousness of Christ, but in some way cling to our covenants, or cling to the ordinances for our salvation, or cling to the various sacraments, or our own good works, rather than clinging to Christ alone. Dear ones, all that we secure for ourselves in such a state of mind, when we move ourselves from a covenant of grace and put ourselves under a covenant of works, All we secure in that state of mind is torment and fear of God's condemning wrath and anger. Our conscience becomes guilt-ridden even when we try our very hardest to please Him if we're under a covenant of works. We can never, under the covenant of works, secure favor and acceptance with God. We can never do enough to secure acceptance and favor with God. For we can never be sure that we have done enough. We can never be sure that we have pleased God enough. We can never be sure that the works we have performed are complete enough. We can never be certain or sure if we do not keep ourselves in our minds, and in our words, and in our actions, under the covenant of grace, so that all we do by way of worship and obedience to Christ is not in order to secure His righteousness or acceptance, merit, or favor, but is in order to show our love and our gratitude to God for all that He has done in our lives. Do we want God to appear to us as an avenging judge or do we want Him to appear to us as a loving Father? That's the difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Here is a state of mind in which we may in fact endure, as it were, the very torment of hell on our mind if we're not careful. However, dear ones, there is hope in Jesus Christ For God has not given to us the spirit of fear, according to 2 Timothy 1.7. He has not given to us the spirit of fear. Rather, the apostle says, For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. These are the gifts of God to us, not fear. This sinful, slavish fear, dear ones, though someone may want to make it sound very pious, it's very wicked, it is very subtle, and it will drive us away from the Lord Jesus Christ if we're not careful. Before moving on very quickly, let me say this. Fear may be manifested in various ways in our lives. We may lash out in anger or even seek to destroy the person or the thing feared. Saul, you'll recall, sought to kill David. The scripture says, out of fear. In 1 Samuel 18.12 and verse 29. It was out of fear that motivated him. Fear of David. that he sought to destroy, David. The Pharisees conspired together to murder Christ, and Mark 11.18 says that they feared him. So fear, one would think that fear is always manifested by running. No. Fear sometimes is manifested by taking up a sword and trying to destroy the thing that is feared. In fact, I would offer to you that perhaps one of the motivations, the greatest motivations of those who attack us for standing for the truth, who would even be our persecutors, is fear of us. A second way in which fear may be manifested is we may laugh and make fun of the person or the thing that is feared. We think that if our fears can become almost a joke to us, we can rid ourselves entirely of our fears. This is a very humanistic way of dealing with our fears. It's a short-lived cure for a terminal problem. Avoid it. So it is said to us, avoid the fear by making fun of it. And it will go away. Well, perhaps for a time it might go away. It will not go away for good. It's a very short term remedy. Thirdly, we may indeed run from the person or thing that is feared. Here a person thinks if he can keep himself occupied, busy, constantly active, he can rid himself of his fears. And there's nothing wrong with being busy and active and trying to keep our minds occupied when we are afraid. But if one thinks that's the remedy ultimately to overcoming fears, there's something wrong with that particular response. This may again provide some temporary relief, but it will not deal with the fear and with its cause. It simply treats the symptom but not the root problem, because the root problem of fear is unbelief and guilt. Fourthly, we may become paralyzed and immobilized by the person or thing that is feared. At such times, We're like a deer who can't move because it's caught in the headlights of an approaching car. We are afraid to make a decision one way or another, so we say nothing, like a person before an audience who has stage fright. We convince ourselves that the safest thing to do is to say nothing and to do nothing, because we're so afraid of making a decision, we're paralyzed. Fifthly, fear may be manifested by an unrelenting guilt that will not cease, nor will be abated. David certainly experienced this fear, this unrelenting guilt in Psalm 32, verses 1-4, where he speaks of the hand of God as it was heavy upon him. during the time of his unconfessed sin, sin he had committed adultery and murder of Bathsheba, having had her husband murdered. Dear ones, God says about this sinful fear that we are not given to that fear to follow that fear. We are not obligated or bound to fall into fear. We do have the remedy as we saw in 2 Timothy 1.7. The Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 12 verses 4-7 has taught we who are Christians not to fear any man or any person who can merely kill the body. who can simply take our physical life from us, but Him who we ought to truly fear, with a wholesome fear, is the Lord God who can take both body and soul. Because of His strength and His power, we ought to fear the Almighty God. The second main point, the righteous are overcomers by faith, in Proverbs 28, 1, the second part, says, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Here Solomon contrasts the fleeing and fear of the wicked with the boldness of the righteous. Notice, they are bold as a lion, not as cocky as a lion, not as arrogant as a lion, not as boastful as a lion, Proud as a lion, they are bold or confident. Not self-confident, but God-confident. The lion of all beasts in the world epitomizes that beast which is without fear a foe or enemy. And the Lord, by this contrast, encourages the Christian that he, regardless of his weaknesses and of his fears, has been given the grace of boldness and confidence like that of a lion. For the lion of the tribe of Judah, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, has already purchased for him true boldness and courage for each and every believer in Jesus Christ. Dear ones, this purchase, this redemption of Jesus Christ You're not simply talking about the power of positive thinking. If you simply say it often enough, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who continued to say, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid, that it's going to happen, that you won't be afraid. No, we're not talking about that at all. This is an actual grace that has been already purchased, deposited into your spiritual bank account, which the Lord purchased with His own life. And dear ones, if it cost the life of the Lord Jesus Christ to secure that benefit for you, I can absolutely guarantee you that that benefit is in your account, if you have trusted and taken Christ to be your Savior. It belongs to you, dear child of God, as your inheritance. Have you then, by faith and trust in Christ, been withdrawing? Have you gone to the bank account every day to withdraw the grace of boldness and confidence in Jesus Christ? Or have you rather been living as a pauper? Have you been running in fear as if Such a grace did not exist. Beloved, we have seen how fear affects us in the first part of the sermon and manifests itself in our lives. Let us now learn how to overcome our fears by the grace of God. Now, the solution to overcoming fear Almost seems too easy when we feel as though we are enslaved by our fears, like a prisoner within a barricade of barbed wire. It almost seems like those walls and that wire at the top of those walls is impenetrable, that we cannot overcome our fears. I'm sure we've all experienced fear at various times, in various degrees. We wondered whether or not it could actually be overcome. But the way to overcome fear is basically twofold. Trust the promises of God and enjoy the forgiveness of God. Trust the promises of God and enjoy the forgiveness of God. The one naturally follows the other. For we cannot enjoy the wonders of a guilt-free conscience apart from learning to embrace the promises of Christ made to us in the covenant of grace. Since our fears, beloved, result from unbelief and guilt. Unbelief and not trusting in God as He has revealed Himself. Seeing God as someone who is very small in light of our fears. That's unbelief. And since our fears result from guilt and sin, as it did in the hearts and life of Adam as well, Confidence and courage must come from trust in Christ and forgiveness by Christ. And I declare to you, dear ones, with all earnestness and sincerity, that to the degree that you cling to the Lord as your righteousness, as your strength, as your health, as your life, as your joy, as your contentment, as your peace, and as you seek daily to cast all of your anxieties and cares upon Him. To that same degree, you will overcome fear in your life. It's inevitable. Now, as I said, the solution seems all too easy, but that is the solution to our fears. It's not something we work, it is not something we accomplish, but it is something that God accomplishes even through our faith, and simply believing and trusting in the promises of God. It is faith in the promises of God, who cannot lie, that brings the grace of confidence, boldness, and courage into the life of the believer. And I encourage you to read the promises of God every day in order to overcome your fears. If you are wrestling with a particular fear in your life, a worry or anxiety today, consider Psalm 27, the first five verses. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me, and this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. You might want to read Psalm 46 verses 1-3 as well as giving to us great promises when we face various fears. I'm often in times of fear cast upon the example of some like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who would not compromise the truth, even the face of being thrown into a fiery furnace." You see, this is one of those stones, one of those piles of stones that we talked about when we read from Joshua chapter 4, that God told the people of Israel to set up these twelve stones so as to remind them of His deliverance. Well here, as we read this particular account of how God delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and of the courage that He gave To these brethren of ours, listen to their words to the king who threatened them with a fire much hotter than normally would be the case for those who disobeyed the king. Daniel 3, verses 16 through 18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." There is the gift and the grace of courage and confidence, bold as a lion, that was given to three young men. who simply trusted God. And God showed forth great things when the Lord Jesus Christ came and even stood with them in the midst of that fire, keeping them safe from even the smell of smoke upon their hair, their clothing. How do you, dear ones, grow to overcome your fears? Let me give you, just as we close today, several ways in which you can grow in overcoming your fears. First of all, get a piece of paper out when you're all by yourself and identify and acknowledge your fears. Deal with them forthrightly. As I said, stare them straight in the face. Look them eyeball to eyeball. Secondly, confess your fears as rooted in your own unbelief or in your own guilty conscience, that your fears exist because you have not taken God at His word. Confess that as sin. Seek, thirdly, seek His forgiveness and endeavor new obedience to trust His promise. Whatever the promise that God gives, with regard to a situation that you need to know that He will be with you. Trust Him. Endeavor new obedience, and particularly beginning with a guilty conscience. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Believe it. Trust it. Cling to it. that God will forgive when we confess our sins to Him. Fourthly, dear ones, you can't trust someone you don't know. That's just a basic principle. You can't fully trust someone whom you don't really know. Therefore, it must become a daily part of your life to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ through a study of His Word. Becoming very familiar with His promises, with His character. Spending time in communion with the Lord in fervent prayer. You will not overcome your fears, dear ones, apart from the means of God's grace. Overcoming fear doesn't simply fall out of heaven accidentally, or simply light upon us arbitrarily. It comes through a channel, a pipeline. called the means of grace, and studying the Word of God, committing ourselves to the Lord, calling for His strength and help through fervent prayer. Beloved, God is truthful, still into the fourth point. God is truthful and cannot lie. Therefore, we can trust Him. God is faithful and will keep all of His promises. Therefore, we need never fear that He will abandon us or forsake us. God is almighty and cannot be overcome by anything that we fear. He overcomes all other things because all other things are a creation. All other things have been created by the everlasting God. Dear ones, God is love. God is merciful and God is gracious and desires that you enjoy all of the benefits of His salvation. And one of those benefits is confidence, and courage, and boldness. Fifthly, cast your fears upon the Lord throughout the day as they do appear to you. As they come up, learn to cast them back upon the Lord. As often as a fear arises, raises its ugly head, Chop the head off, as it were, and throw it over to the Lord. Cast it upon God. If it happens a hundred times in a day, cast it upon the Lord. Do not carry those fears yourself, even for a moment. Cast them upon the Lord. Sixthly, cling to the promises of Christ in the face of your fears. Know the promises, as we said, and use them in battle against the enemy of your soul. Seventh, think often upon the merciful deliverances of God in your life already. Begin to build those memorials of rocks which the children of Israel were commanded to build when they passed on the other side of the Jordan. Look back to the Scriptures, to those memorial of rocks, at every deliverance of God and rejoice in them. Throughout all of history, look to the deliverances of God in the life of John Wycliffe, or John Hus, or Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, of all of the Covenanters. Look to those deliverances and rejoice in those deliverances and partake of those deliverances because you are one with them. And you serve the same eternal God. They are your deliverances, dear ones. But they would never become our deliverances if we do not partake of them, participate of them. If we do not identify ourselves with these brethren, we are members of the same body. When God delivers them, He has delivered us as members of the same body. And so, dear ones, be thankful. Count your deliverances as blessings Eighthly, learn to rest in the knowledge that you are the justified, beloved, and adopted child of God. Learn to enjoy the covenant of grace. Do not cast yourself back under the covenant of works. Learn to be humbled by God's amazing love for you rather than being filled up with pride. And finally, Look in faith to Jesus Christ. Look to His death and His resurrection as the basis for your deliverance from fear. Look to His death and resurrection as securing everything that you possibly need in this life to overcome fear. And look to your heavenly inheritance for what can Satan do to you, dear ones? If your life is hid with Christ and God, they're in heaven. If that's where your life is, what can mere man do to you? They can simply take your life here, and you can be ascending into heaven rejoicing. God, Jesus Christ awaits you. There is nothing that man can make you fear if Jesus Christ is your life. If heaven is your hope, if that is where your heart, your affections, And your mind is. No one can make you fear in this life. Philippians 121 says, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Is Jesus Christ your life and your reason for living? If he is, you can overcome the fear that runs rampant at times in your own life Let us stand together in prayer. Our gracious Father in Heaven, how we do thank Thee and praise Thee, that Thou, our God, our courage, our health, our strength, our confidence, our boldness, Lord, the world would teach us to be merely self-confident, to look to our own strength and our resources, to look inside of ourselves, but, oh Lord, the Word of God teaches us to look to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And as we, Lord, are in that Lion, we become lions. We cease from running from our own fearful conscience. and from an avenging God. We cease running, O Lord, in fear from our enemies, and we learn, O Lord, to stand for the truth. We learn, O Lord, that regardless of the consequences that may come our way, because, O Lord, we stand in Christ and in His boldness, O Lord, we need not give way. We need not compromise the truth. We need not, Lord, feel like that our life, even should it be taken, is of such significance. O Lord, we pray that Thou would cast us this day upon our Savior and upon the promises of God. We thank Thee, our God, for the truth of Thy Word We pray, Father, that it would, by Thy Spirit, find application and obedience in our lives. For Jesus' sake, Amen. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. S.W.R.B. containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says, that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.