How Can We Not Be Motivated by Fear?

How can we not be motivated by fear? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi there.

Happy Friday. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now, and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so with your question. Here's the number. 833-THE-CORE.

Jot that down. 833-THE-CORE or 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites, including going to our YouTube channel and watching Adriel live in the studio. He's live on YouTube every weekday between 1130 and noon Pacific time. You can also email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

That's questionsatcorechristianity.com. Whatever way you want to get in touch, we would love to receive your question. Let's go to the phones, and Mary Ann is on the line from Florida. Mary Ann, what's your question for Adriel? Hello? Hi, Mary Ann. Are you there?

Yes, I'm here. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. I had a question because I have faith that my husband does not, and so when we talk about it, I get the feeling to think I'm naive, and we never argue about it. It's not really something that we, you know, it's not a conscientious issue, but I just don't know how to deal with that in my heart because I feel, you know, he doesn't respect my faith. That was the question. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for giving us a call. So you are married, and your husband isn't on the same page as you are in terms of faith, and so a couple of things. And the New Testament addresses relationships like this in two places, in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and then also in 1 Peter chapter 3.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, you know, the Apostle Paul's encouragement is if you're married to someone who's not a believer, and they want to be together still, you know, don't separate. You don't know how the Lord might use you to impact your husband for Christ, and so pray. And that has to be the first thing, Mary Ann, is that you're committed to praying for your husband, ultimately that the Lord would open his eyes, because regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit, and, you know, it's not going to be your convincing arguments.

I know that we can feel a lot of pressure, but it's not going to be your convincing arguments per se that transform your husband. It's going to be the work of the Holy Spirit in his life, and so praying, and then seeking to follow Jesus to the best of your ability to set that positive example of what it looks like to follow Christ. And that's precisely what Peter says in 1 Peter 3. He says in verse 1, Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husband, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

And so you don't even have to use those compelling arguments per se. Peter is saying, look, just lay the groundwork, let your husband see your love for the Lord, that conduct. When they see, he goes on to say, your respectful and pure conduct. Don't let your adorning be, you know, external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing that you wear. That's not the focus, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which in God's sight, is very precious. And so I think praying for your husband and seeking to follow the Lord faithfully and to set that example, let him see that conduct, and praying that the Lord would give you opportunities to talk about the Christian faith.

And you don't need to feel foolish or naive. There are a lot of great reasons to believe the things that we do as Christians, not just, you know, some fairy tale or something like that that we've embraced. And again, this is exactly what Peter says in another letter that he wrote in 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 16.

We did not follow cleverly devised myth when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And so may God bless you, sister, and give you grace in order to follow the Lord and to set that example for your husband. May he open your husband's heart. And I hope that you stay on the line, Mary Ann, because I'm sure that there are some resources that we can send your way related to defending the Christian faith and some of the reasons for why we believe the things that we believe in.

Maybe that's even something that you can share with your husband to begin to open that door to have conversations about who Jesus is, what he's done. And so stay on the line and we'll try to get you hooked up with some of those resources, Mary Ann. God bless.

Mm. Mary Ann, thanks so much for calling Core Christianity. We will keep you in prayer in that entire situation. If you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, doctrine, theology, sharing your faith, whatever it might be, here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Leonard in Missouri. Leonard, what's your question for Adriel? Okay, my question is, do we love the world the way the Christ told his disciples to love each other as he loved him before he left? And I wanted to know, do we supposed to love the world the way we love each other that's in the Christian fellowship, or is it because there's so many different kinds of love?

So that was my question. Do you understand? Yeah, I think that I do. So, you know, the love that we give to each other as the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, the exact same as the love that we give to those who are outside of the faith. So there are a couple of things that I want to say here. First, I think we're called, first and foremost, to love one another within the body of Christ. There is a priority there, just because of proximity, because of closeness, because of worshiping together, and I think that's what the apostle Paul is getting at in places like Galatians chapter six, verse 10. He says, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith, that is within the body of Christ. And so it seems like there's some emphasis and priority, but we have to be careful that we're not closed off to the world and that we don't think in our minds, well, I'm only called to love my people, those who agree with me and are followers of Jesus like me, and I don't have an obligation to love those outside of the church, the people that I disagree with, because Jesus made it very clear in his Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapters five through seven, that we are called to love even our enemies. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, Jesus says in Matthew chapter five, verse 43. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. And so what I'd say to you, brother, is that we are called to love everyone, even our enemies, and that's what distinguishes us as the people of God. Everyone, you know, loves those who love them, Jesus says, even tax collectors and sinners do that.

You can get a band of thieves together who are willing to love, you know, their fellow thieves. What's unique about us is that we love even our enemies, and Christ himself is the one who set that example. But just in terms of priority and proximity, we're called to do good to all people, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. And so may God help us, frankly, and especially in our divided age where it's really easy to look at the people we disagree with and to feel justified in hating them.

I mean, this happens, and it can happen even among Christians. We have to heed the words of our Lord Jesus there in Matthew chapter 5 and lovingly pursue and preach the gospel to even our enemies. Thank you for your question, Leonard. Great counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you. Maybe you have a question about a Bible passage that's always confused you. Give us a call right now at 833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Bart calling in from Tennessee. Bart, what's your question for Adriel? Hello, Adriel.

It's a pleasure to speak with you. My question was that I know I'm a born-again Christian and that I have been sealed, and my question was, can a born-again, sealed Christian become a police officer? And I know I need to pray about it, if that's what I want to choose as a career for my future, but I just wanted to know what might the scripture have to say about it.

Hey, Bart, thank you for that question. I have some dear friends who are followers of Jesus, love the Lord, and are sheriffs and police officers, and my answer is, yes, you can, and you can serve your community in that way, and I hope that your faith in Jesus Christ makes you an even better police officer, right? That you do your work with integrity and with love and with a strong commitment to truth and justice. I think about, you know, when John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness in Luke chapter 3, he has these crowds that are coming to him, and they're confessing their sins because he's preaching the law of God to them, and among those groups, one of the groups of people that were coming to John were the soldiers, Roman soldiers, who were coming to him. They're called to enforce law, and they asked him, what do we need to do?

And John doesn't say to them, well, you can no longer be a soldier. Instead, he says, do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages. In other words, don't be a corrupt soldier. Don't extort money. Don't threaten people by false accusation.

Be content with how God has provided for you, and that's what I would say. You're pursuing this career. Do so with integrity, with a heart committed to the Lord, and seek to serve your community. I mean, I know that there's a massive need for law enforcement and for good law enforcement, and we're thankful for those who serve in law enforcement, Martin. So may God bless you and guide you and open the door for you if this is indeed what he's calling you to, and so thanks for giving us a call, and God bless. You know, I never mentioned this to you, Adriel, but right out of college, I considered becoming a San Diego County sheriff's deputy, and I actually got ready to apply, and then I got a job in radio, and I never pursued it. Quite the transition there, Bill, from police officer to radio, so pretty cool.

Yeah, well, I never actually served in that role, but one of my good friends is a deputy, and I have so much respect for him, just like you do for the police officers that you know, so thank you for that great word. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, feel free to give us a call right now at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, you mentioned John the Baptist in your earlier answer. Let's go to Reed, who has an interesting question about John the Baptist and Jesus.

Reed, what's your question for Adriel? In Matthew 3, 13, the Baptist was with Jesus. He was perfect in every way. How come he had to be baptized? Yeah, let's just read the text. Matthew 3, verse 13, Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him, and John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, and here's your answer, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented, and when Jesus was baptized immediately, he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming to rest on him, and behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And so it wasn't that Jesus needed to be forgiven of some sin. It's clear that he was made like us in all ways, except that he had no sin.

This is what the author of the Hebrews says. But he does undergo baptism, the baptism of John, in order to fulfill all righteousness. He is coming as the second Adam and true Israel. It's so interesting, actually, in the narrative here in the Gospel of Matthew, what happens? Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, and this is going to happen in the very next chapter, in chapter 4.

Right before that, he's baptized. Prior to that, he flees from Egypt. What he's really doing, what we're seeing here, is Jesus walking in the footsteps of Israel, going from Egypt through the water into the quote-unquote wilderness. Remember Israel in the wilderness for 40 years?

Well, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. And so what we're seeing here is Jesus as the true Israel, fulfilling all righteousness on behalf of the people of God. This is the beloved Son of God, with whom the Father is well pleased.

And thanks be to God for that, because each of us, like Israel in the Old Testament, falls short, disobey God, fail and fall in the wilderness, succumb to temptation. Our hope is in the perfect Son of God, Jesus, who fulfilled all righteousness, who perfectly kept the commandments of God, so that we might be given his righteous standing, his righteousness, by what we call imputation, and be justified before a holy God. And so what we're seeing is the Gospel in action, Jesus fulfilling all righteousness, the very law of God, to redeem you and me.

Thank you. God bless. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. As you know, there's a lot of discussion about abortion in our culture right now, particularly given the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, the Dobbs decision.

And as you're discussing this issue with other people, they may have a very different view than you do, and we'd like to help you understand God's view of the sanctity of human life. And that's why we have a great devotional we'd like to make available to you today. Yeah, you can download this devotional from our website over at corechristianity.com.

It's a free digital download. It's called Fearfully Made. And so head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers right now to get ahold of this resource and some great biblical information about the importance of life and standing up for life. God bless.

Once again, it's called Fearfully Made. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. By the way, while you're at our website, check out some of the other wonderful resources we have there. We've got core guides and core questions and some wonderful Bible studies for you individually or for your small group through your church. Check it out, corechristianity.com. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core.

And here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Jared. My question has to do with the doctrine of regeneration. And at what point would, you know, the affections of the hearts or noticing a disinclination towards worshipping God or blasphemous thoughts while, you know, attempting prayer, worship, or fellowshipping with the saints, that there's just this overwhelming sense of, okay, I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing, but it's motivated a lot by fear. We're just wondering, at what point does someone look at that and go, am I truly regenerated?

And if they are not, what do they do? Thank you. Jared, thanks for that lovely presentation.

Jared, thanks for that voicemail, brother. And of course, regeneration, that gift of a new heart, that is the work of God's Spirit in our lives. Jesus made that very clear in the Gospel of John and in John chapter three, as he's having that discussion with Nicodemus. So I say that because, you know, it's easy for us to say, oh man, am I regenerated? Am I not regenerated? And to begin to try to look for and search for the fruits of regeneration, you know, I should have X amount of peace, or I should have X amount of obedience, and I'm plagued by the fact, I'm struggling with the fact that I don't obey God the way that I want to. And the first thing I would want to say to you is, if you're having those feelings, that in and of itself, in my mind, is a sign of the fact that the Spirit of God is at work in your life, because the person who is unregenerate doesn't care about whether or not they're truly obeying God from the heart. There is no real battle.

Now for the regenerate person, there is a real battle. Paul makes this clear in Romans chapter seven, in Galatians chapter five, and so the fact that there is a battle against the flesh, a desire, a longing to experience and know Christ's presence, his love to apprehend those promises in the Gospel, right, and insofar as that's there, I think that's a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, and the fact that you're in the fight, and so as you're in the fight, I think it's realizing that God's grace and his promises really are for you, even in the midst of that battle, in the midst of that struggle, and in terms of obeying God, not merely out of fear, but because you've apprehended his great love, you really have a sense of his forgiveness and love. One resource that I would recommend to you is just a short article that I wrote some years ago actually over at corechristianity.com called Obeying God Out of Slavish Fear, and in that article I quote one of the Puritans, John Owen, who asked the question, he says, when you are by sin driven to make a stand so that you must either serve it and rush at the command of it into folly, like the horse into battle, or make head against it to suppress it, what do you say to your soul? In other words, how do you fight against your sin? Do you say to yourself, hell will be the end of this course, vengeance will meet with me and find me out. In other words, is it fear that drives you to obey God and to fight against sin when you're tempted? You think, oh no, the heavenly hammer is going to fall on me, and if that is the case, well, that's not a very strong position to fight against sin from.

He continued, he says, know that this reserve will not hold out long. If your lust has driven you from stronger gospel forts, it will speedily prevail against this also. In other words, his point is, you know what we need to go to? It's the grace of God that we've received in the gospel.

That's the fort, the fortress in the midst of the battle. It's recognizing and knowing that you are a beloved child of God and that your sin and this struggle doesn't separate you from the love and the mercy of God. You confess your sin to the Lord and that he forgives you. John says, 1 John 4, verse 16, we have come to know and believe love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. So Jared, I want to pray for you right now that what John says here, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us, that you would come to know that and believe it more and more for yourself. And for all of you who are listening right now, and we need this, to know in the deepest part of our heart that God loves us and he's exhibited his love so clearly in sending his son to the cross for our sins. Father, pray for my brother Jared. I thank you, Lord God, that he longs to obey you, to serve you, to follow you, that he is in the fight. And Lord, we know how easy it is to be discouraged in that fight, to look inside and to still see, Lord, indwelling sin, to have thoughts that plague us, Lord, that we know are not from you. And those thoughts can discourage us and make us question even whether or not we truly believe or not we truly belong to you. And so I pray that your spirit would be at work in his life right now and that, Lord, as John says there in 1 John chapter 4 verse 16, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us, that Jared and all those who are listening right now might come to know and believe more and more, gracious Father, the love that you have for them in sending your son to the cross Jesus to suffer for their sin so that they might have life.

Help him to know it, help him to believe it, and help him, Lord, to love you because you first loved him. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thanks for that, Adriel. So important. And I was thinking about the fact that when we are talking to non-believers about the gospel, really our motivation needs to be one that comes from kindness and love. And, you know, we talked about that verse the other day from Romans 2 about, you know, God's kindness leads us to repentance, and that should be our approach in our evangelism. Don't you agree? Yeah.

Well, absolutely. We're not trying to drive people away. The gospel is good news for sinners. Now, the law is bad news. I mean, we preach the law like John the Baptist did in that text we were looking at earlier, and people say, well, woe is me.

What should I do? And that's where the good news of the gospel comes in, that God has made a way for us as sinners to have peace with him through Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-The-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.