No Fear #1

Christians are meant to live courageously. Christians are meant to be men and women of courage.

Men and women who do not flinch at adversity, who do not flinch at danger. Because there is always this settled confidence that God as our shepherd is with us. We live in a dangerous world and life can present great challenges.

It's easy to give in to fear and anxiety, isn't it? But God's sure word tells us we should not fear. And on this edition of the Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green will show why we can and must live a life without fear. Hello, I'm Bill Wright. And Don, you have a powerful psalm for us to savor today, don't you?

Well, that's very true, Bill. My friend, we're going to turn to Psalm 46 today. It's a fairly familiar psalm, but it does wonderful things in helping us to live life without fear. Indeed, it transcends our individual lives and tells us about the grandeur and majesty of God.

His sovereignty is the grounds for our security and our comfort throughout all of life. Stay with us as we open the Bible today, here on the Truth Pulpit. Thanks, Don. And friend, have your Bible open as we join Don now as he continues in his ministry of teaching God's people God's Word in the Truth Pulpit. I invite you to turn to Psalm 46.

I'm going to read it in its entirety and then we'll go through it today. Psalm 46, beginning in verse 1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.

Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She will not be moved.

God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered. He raised his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two.

He burns the chariots with fire. Cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our stronghold. I want you to notice something as we begin. Just to give you a sense, I like to give you a sense of the structure of a passage so that you can kind of go back and read it later on your own. You'll notice that after verse 3, verse 7, and verse 11, there is that familiar word, selah. A word indicating to pause here, meditate. Perhaps if this was being played musically, it was a notation for a musical interlude.

But whatever it is, it's designed to help you to pause, to reflect back on the section that was just finished, and to let that sink in a little bit deeper. And so there are three sections to this psalm, all designed to do this. All designed to reinforce the primary statement found in verse 2. Therefore, look at verse 2 with me, therefore we will not fear.

We will not fear. The people of God, the church of Jesus Christ in the New Testament era, are meant to be a people who live life without fear. Now, let me step back, beloved, and just as a little pastoral matter, acknowledge the fact I understand that many of you are prone to anxiety. You are prone to fear, you are prone to worry, you chew your nails over what's about to happen in life, or your concern over what might happen to you or to your loved ones.

I understand that. God's Word comes to you in two different ways, we might say. One, it comes not to condemn you so much in that and to discourage you by holding up an unattainable standard. God comes to his people to bless us and to help us. But also, God's Word comes to you today not to affirm you and leave you in that condition of life and that approach to life as if that were an acceptable way for a Christian to live.

If that prevailing, biting, concerning anxiety is a mark of the way that you live your life, what you need to do is you need to come to God's Word and let it sift you and let it change you, and let God's Word show you why that condition of fear and anxiety is utterly unnecessary for you to live. You see, God has designed life, God has given us Christ, God has given us the indwelling Spirit, God has given his infallible Word to us, all in part to strengthen us so that we would be people of courage as we live our lives. It doesn't do much good, does it? It doesn't really glorify and honor God, does it? To say that you believe in this God, that you believe in this Christ, that you're trusting him for your eternal salvation, and yet to live life in such a way that you present to everyone who knows you, this fragile, breaking, concerned, overwhelmed persona that says, I don't know what's going to happen next. Well, realize that there is a severe disconnect between that manner of living and the God that you claim that you know. And what you need to see is God's Word comes to you today and says you cannot continue on living that way, and gives us understanding to help us see why that is totally unnecessary.

The question becomes, if we know God like we say we do, then that has a powerful corrective, it has a powerful influence on the way that we approach all of life. And God's Word comes with authority to us today to lay these things out before us, and it is our responsibility as the people of God to recognize his exalted nature, his power, his promises, his presence with us, and say, ah, that's going to influence the way that I live life from now on. And so God comes to us today in his Word to address us in our anxieties and say, it's time for that to change, and here's why it can change. The three sections of this psalm all help us to understand and to reinforce the reality that a Christian can live with no fear. I realize that that's a high and lofty challenge, but in response to the nature of God it is the only appropriate response. Why can we live this way?

How can we be certain that this is all right? Point number one, we can have this certainty, we can have this confidence, because point number one, God prevails over nature. God prevails, God rules over all of nature. And we see a theme verse as the psalm opens up. Verse number one, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The verse presupposes that you're going to have trouble, Christian.

You know this from your own personal experience, that trouble comes. The courage and the absence of fear is not from an absence of trouble, but the presence of God in the midst of it. And that's what this scripture is calling you to recognize, calling you to respond to. This is a theme verse.

Verse number one lays out the theme, and then everything else is just an unfolding of what the significance of that is for you as a believer. God is a refuge, the psalmist says. In other words, God to his people is like a shelter that you can go into, that protects you from the storm, a refuge in a time of danger. The whole idea is this, is that the reality of your salvation, the reality of God being your God, means that you are meant to go to Him in trust. You are to appeal to Him, to seek Him as your help in the midst of the danger that assaults you. Christian, in your times of threat, in your times of helplessness, God is present with you in order to assist you, to aid you, to help you. That's the whole point of that verse.

And this sense of protection is reinforced. Look at verse one with me again. It is reinforced by saying that He is a strength. Christian, your confidence, your power in your time of trouble, is not found, again, by manipulating people and circumstances. It is found by remembering that you serve, you belong to, a God of might and power. Your ability to walk through danger without fear is found not in your personal resources, your personal cleverness, or your ability to manage things in a particular way.

The arm of flesh will fail you without fail. Your might and power is found in the God in whom you know and the God in whom you trust. And so, beloved, the strength and the power of God comes to you like a mighty wind, like a mighty wave over your soul, and says this is designed to define your worldview. This is designed to determine the way that you think about everything else. And until you come to realize that this is the cornerstone, this is the foundation upon all of the rest of your life is built, you're going to struggle with fear and anxiety.

You see, whenever we talk about the character of God, there is always real-life implication to it. And sometimes I'm afraid that we miss that, that we've been conditioned, perhaps, to think about God in the abstract, to think about God and your belief in Christ as a compartment of life, that the spiritual stuff is stuck over here, and I think about that, and that's okay, but then there's real life over here, and you miss the fact that those two are interrelated. And so, when you are experiencing fear and anxiety, beloved, I can promise you that you are not thinking about life through the prism of the strength and refuge that is your God. Because if you were thinking about it from that perspective, these other things would not overwhelm you in such a way as they are tend to do. And so, I emphasize that simply to say this, that if you are prone to anxiety, and you hear these things about the power and strength of God and say, I've heard this before, I know this before, well, understand, beloved, that those two things are coexisting in your life.

I've heard this before, and boy, am I worried about what comes next, then you've never really understood it in the first place. You see, it becomes a spiritual issue that you say, maybe I'm not as far advanced in the Christian life as I think I am. If anxiety controls me to such an extent, you see, anxiety is like a physical disease, it's a spiritual symptom that points out that something is wrong.

You have pain in your side, you say, there's something wrong here, oh, I've got to see a doctor! If you're plagued by consuming ongoing anxiety, you should realize that that's telling you that there is a spiritual problem, that there are aspects of spiritual life that you have not yet accessed that are designed to change the way that you think and live. You see, this fear is not something that is an expected, tolerated part of genuine Christian living. No, no, look at verse 2. Look at verse 2. Therefore, therefore being a connection with what we just saw, because God is our refuge and strength, because God is a present help, he is ever ready to assist his people in their difficulty, therefore, based on that, this follows.

This is connected like an engine to the rest of the train. They are linked together. Therefore what? Therefore, we will not fear, because our God is like this, because he is a strength and a help, therefore, we will not fear, we will not tremble at circumstances, we will not be afraid of the future, no matter what happens in the next election, no matter what happens in the world, no matter what happens in life, we look forward to the future without fear.

Why? Not because we know what's going to happen. Not because we're necessarily going to experience earthly prosperity and success. It has nothing to do with that.

It has nothing to do with that shifting sand. It has nothing to do with that collapsible house of cards, when we don't know what our lives will be like tomorrow. No, we live without fear, because this God is our refuge and strength. Let me state this in a positive way, beloved. The power and the promises of God call forth a response of worship. We worship God. We recognize his greatness, and in the presence of someone infinitely superior to us, we bow in worship to him.

Worship is a response to the character of God. What I want you to see is this, is that in the language of Psalm 46, trust then becomes our response of worship to him. Trust, a confidence, trust and an absence of fear, is the only appropriate response to making this declaration of faith that this God of the Bible is our refuge and strength.

It's the only appropriate way to respond to him. The nature of your God should inform the way that your heart responds to the inevitable challenges of life. You see, when the trials come, when the sorrows flood over your soul, when the uncertainty starts to overwhelm you, you have to step back and say, ah, but where is my help in this?

Who is my help in this? My help is in my God. And the question then becomes, okay, you just kind of walk through this, and what is this God like? Who is this God that I say is my strength and refuge? And what you find as you go through the rest of Psalm 46 is that this Psalm calls you to unlimited confidence, unqualified trust in him because of who he is to the point that even if the earth collapses, you still go forward without fear. Look at verse 2. Therefore, we will not fear. And then, perhaps with a measure of hyperbole, the psalmist says, we'll not fear even if this and this and this and this happens. We won't give in to controlling anxiety even if, verse 2, the earth should change. Wow, Psalm 46, verse 2 just did away with the whole climate change hysteria in one little bit of word. We won't fear if the earth should change, though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. There should be a settled confidence in your God that no matter what is happening in nature around you, you are confident.

Why? Because God rules even over nature. He prevails over that. He's the God of the storm. He's the God of the quake. He's the God of the flood.

And if you know him, then you know the one who is directing all of that to accomplish his ends. And therefore, there is no reason to fear because God our strength does not change. And when you belong to him, beloved, it doesn't matter if there's a tornado roaring down on you. It doesn't matter if the flood waters are rising. It doesn't matter if the earth is shaking. It doesn't matter if the earth is collapsing before your eyes and melting into some unrecognizable mass.

And everything that defines your life is fluid and changing without warning. Scripture says, even in that, no fear. Because there is a transcendent God that you know that is your strength and refuge even in a time like that. God prevails over nature.

Now, here's the thing. The time to find that strength and that courage is not found in the middle of the collapsing of the elements. What you are designed to do is to develop your convictions now, to develop them when there is stability in your life. When you do have time to think about these things, you reflect on the character of God, the nature of God, and you say, yes, I do believe that.

Yes, this is true. Yes, this is the heart conviction that will define my approach to life. And therefore, even if these things happen in the future, I will remain unmoved from my position of confidence. And that's why, beloved, it is so vital for you to be here.

I thank God that you're here. It is so vital for you to be a persistent reader and student of God's Word. Because it is only in the midst of times of relative calm where you are developing these heart convictions that prepare you for those times to come.

If you are spiritually careless now, indifferent to the claims of God, indifferent to a love for God's Word, you're vulnerable when those times hit. And so you are meant to develop these convictions, and as you go through a psalm like Psalm 46, you say to yourself in the quiet of your heart, that is what I believe. And you say, by the grace of God, that's where I'm going to stand, and I'm not going to move off of it. And then when you're tested, when the ground starts to shake, when life starts to collapse, then you fall back on the convictions that you developed before rather than falling down in the midst of the trial. And so, beloved, here's what you have to answer for yourself here today. Do you believe that God prevails over nature? Do you believe that He is God over all? Is that the conviction of your heart?

Well, if it is, then you're in a position of stability, and you say, therefore, we will not fear, no matter what comes. Look at verse 3 there at the end with me. Selah.

It causes you to pause and meditate. Beloved, what that selah is telling you to do is to clear your mind of the distractions and meditate on this. God, you say to yourself, is my refuge and strength. He is my shelter. He is my stronghold.

He is where I go. And He rules, and He prevails over all, and He knows my name, and He carries me, and I trust Him. And no matter what happens, nothing can alter that fundamental relationship with Him that defines the very nature of my existence and guarantees the future outcome to me. And you say, therefore, my commitment is no fear because I will trust Him as a worshipful response to who He is. God, then, is a transcendent source of stability, transcendent in the sense that He is not defined by or controlled by the changes in your circumstances, even the changes in the ground in which you walk.

He is not threatened by that. It does not change Him. He still rules over all of it, and so you go to Him, and you rest in Him, and you receive that certain confidence that comes from believing that. And what you believe in your heart defines the way that you respond to life. And beloved, that answers fear. You trust this God even when upheaval threatens you at the core, not just nature, life. We know from the New Testament, don't we, that our Lord Jesus manifested that control over nature. You remember Him walking on the waves?

You remember the raging sea, and He just looks at it and says, hush, be still, and a hurricane, as it were, turns to glass in response to the powerful demonstration of our Lord Jesus' power over nature. Well, let me ask you, do you know Him? Do you know Christ? And you say, yes, I do.

I have received Him. I do believe in Him. Well, do you realize what that means then? It means that you belong to the Lord, the Lord who is over nature like that is the one who has said, you belong to me and I'll keep you forever. To which you say, ah, then I can rest without fear because my Lord prevails over nature. Sometimes, for those of you that don't know Christ, sometimes the threats of life, sometimes the threats of nature, and you say, ah, and you're really gripped by the fear, it may simply be a manifestation of the fact that you don't know Christ at all. That you don't have any solace in Christ is an indication that you are separate from Him and you need to come to Him for salvation in the first instance. To be born again, to be saved at all. Because the truly redeemed heart responds to the truth of God's word and says, I do believe that.

And oh, I fall short, and yes, I've forgotten that. But that is true of me. I do believe that about Christ. He is my strength. He is my refuge. Therefore, I will not fear, no matter what happens. Just as the disciples need not have feared the storm with Christ in the boat, so we too need not fear the storms of life. Pastor Don Green will present two more compelling reasons you need not fear next time here on The Truth Pulpit. Tune in for the conclusion of his message titled No Fear.

Right now though, Don's back here in studio with some closing words. You know, friend, we realize that you may not be close enough to our church to be able to join us as you would like to on any given Sunday. So let me invite you to join us on our live stream that you can find at our website. Sundays at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. And also we have a midweek service on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. We would love to have you join us in that way.

A lot of people do. You might as well be one more that join us for those special studies of God's Word and our church services on Sundays and Tuesdays. Here's Bill with some final information to help you find us. Thanks Don. Just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word.