Address—Don Rule
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And help me.
That aren't mine #27 in the appendix we need a starter.
Oh my God.
Oh, one hour.
I am.
Home dear all day.
Why should I?
Never.
And I.
Come here in the morning and.
Umm.
Subjects were.
I don't know if I should say my heart, but anyways, the subject before me this afternoon is fear.
You turn with me to Genesis.
Where we have the beginning in Scripture of fear.
Genesis chapter 3.
Adverse.
Nine And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, for ourselves.
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. Mr. Garvey translates it. I am naked and I hate myself.
Turn with me to Proverbs chapter one.
Roberts, Chapter One.
And verse 7.
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The fear of the Lord.
Is the beginning of knowledge.
Now over to 1St John Chapter 4.
First John, chapter 4.
And verse 16.
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
Because as he is, so are we. In this world, there is No Fear.
In love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect. In love we love him because He first loved us.
Everybody in this room.
Knows what fear is.
Maybe the littlest child in the room isn't capable of expressing why or.
Using the word. But they've experienced it in their lives. And every one of us knows what fear is, and we all experience it. And perhaps you've had it today. I have. And maybe you have two.
So we know what fear is. The only person that, and I submit this to you, that ever lived in this world without fear is the Lord Jesus Christ. He went through his entire life without fear.
Perfect love casts out fear. He went through his entire life in the reality and the truth.
Of that fact, and consequently without fear.
Adam and Eve when God created them.
And we had been able to visit them in the Garden of Eden.
If we had said, Adam, do you fear anything? He would have had to answer. I don't know what that word means. I have no idea what fear is.
In innocence, he experienced No Fear.
But the minute Adam disobeyed God, the very first.
Reaction in Adam was fear.
And because he was afraid, he immediately, well, who is he afraid of? He was afraid of God.
He wasn't afraid of the animals, he wasn't afraid of a storm or anything of nature as it were coming into his life at that moment.
But he was afraid of God.
Every one of us in this room knows what that is. Every one of us has experienced something of that.
Adam.
Immediately tried to do something about it to take care of his fear.
Because he had sinned, or shall I say before he had sinned.
He was totally open and free.
In his soul, with God. There was nothing in him that wanted or needed hiding. He was OK and he knew it. He was innocent.
Of any such feelings or thoughts.
But as soon as Adam disobeyed God.
The consequences of his disobedience, He felt it in himself.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And it produced in him a fear, and as a consequence of that fear he tried to hide himself or cover himself.
With something that would perhaps remove or hide between himself and God and remove him within him his own fear.
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He recognized when he put some clothes on that that didn't hide his guilt from God. And so when God comes down into the garden, he's trying to hide behind the trees. And so God says to him, where are you? Where art thou? And he's forced to come out from behind the trees and face God. And God ask him, what is it? Where would you do that for?
He said as we read there.
I hid my I was afraid and I hid myself and it perhaps more accurate and I am naked. That is, he recognized that what he provided for himself by way of clothing and the attempt to hide it, what he had done or if used the nature of the trees of nature as a way of protecting himself from God didn't work. He was still naked.
And there is something in the conscience of every one of us that learns sooner or later that we can't hide from God. We can hide from each other.
To some extent at least, we can pretend to each other to some extent, early or not or so. But with God, we can't do it. We recognize it and there's a consequence in it.
That's fear.
I'll try to explain why, but before I do, I just wanna bring out something that's really important. When you see word fear in the Bible, it doesn't always mean the same thing.
There's more than one kind of fear.
And it's important to recognize the difference.
Adam, I'm gonna use it this way. When he disobeyed God, he had a very uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach, that kind of fear.
He had a fear that we all recognized when something happens or we think is going to happen and we don't feel very comfortable about it. In fact, we sometimes people talk about him being petrified with fear. I've had dreams in which certain things are happening and I'm in a certain situation and I feel petrified. I can't move because of the fear.
Even in something like a dream.
And that is the way it happens too. And consciousness, sometimes the person said, I, it happened and I just was frozen. I couldn't do anything. There was that fear.
And there is.
A serious fear that has to do with man's relationship with his God when he disobeys him.
But there's another kind of fear that's brought out in Proverbs chapter one that we read. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And a little later, the fear of the Lord in the Proverbs is the beginning of wisdom. That means a profound reverence and awe.
Toward God. That is a reverential fear, that is fear of a character that we will should have, and as the children of God will have forever.
A profound awe, a profound respect for our God.
That's a good fear. That's a proper fear, that reverential fear of our God.
We want that the greater it is in us, the better it is for us.
To whenever God comes before our thoughts, we immediately hold Him.
In Supreme.
Honor and reverence.
And respect in every thought with respect to himself.
We live in a world that despises God.
Doesn't want to know a God that's any greater than himself, and so tries to take the greatness of God and and reduce it down to something that's no greater than his own mind's capacity to know and understand and appreciate.
Not at all willing to recognize a God with respect to whom man is just a speck.
A tiny little speck of his creation, as far as his comparison to his God.
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And without it, without that respect, man has no knowledge, incapable of anything in his knowledge of God.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. If you sit in this room this afternoon, young person or any age person, and you do not have a proper respect for God.
You have no knowledge of God.
You're blind.
Ignorant.
But it's the beginning. It's the starting point.
There's something that is in this subject that is difficult, perhaps.
But maybe not so difficult. It's just that we don't really.
Enter into it in a practical way, and that is.
Men and believers, there's this constant tension sometimes between the love of God and that God is light and we can't always somehow in our thoughts and our feelings reconcile the two. And it creates a a tension in us, a difficulty within us, within the circumstances of our lives.
Because on the one side we recognize the God of supreme authority and power.
And on the other side, we recognize the God of love.
Beyond with a love that's beyond our understanding and consequently when things occur or come into our lives, we have great difficulty many times between the two.
The fear side often comes because of the holiness and the majesty that God is light.
And the love side, because of what love is and what love does in its actions toward us.
But Adam as he was in the Garden of Eden.
He recognized his.
The knowledge of good and evil that came into him, the conscience that came as a result of his disobedience, that gave him something of the knowledge of good and evil, also brought with it fear.
He was before a holy God.
It's to talk a little bit more about that side of it.
Suppose I said to you, man is built.
A spaceship.
Capable of going out into space with a greater distance than the moon.
And so you've been selected to get on that spaceship.
And we are gonna send you out into space to visit the Sun.
And anybody whose brain works at all says no thank you.
Wouldn't even consider it. Why not? Because there is that within us which recognizes there's no hope, there's no chance.
Nobody is ever gonna make a spacecraft of any God made material that is going to go to the moon or go to the sun. The sun has a majesty and it's by some of the Suns in the universe, a tiny one.
There's some huge Suns out there, but the one we know is sufficient for our purpose.
And we can't approach it. It has a brilliance, it has a character that we cannot approach.
While we may not realize it very well.
God is, light is.
Something so great that God in his essential being.
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As light we will never.
Approach.
And we have that in First Timothy chapter 5.
God dwells in unapproachable light.
But God has come out in his love to us in a way that we can approach him in the person of the Lord Jesus, and we can be near to God, and we'll have that sense of our nearness to our God for eternity and in the holiness of His being, being at peace and without fear too, in His presence.
But God in his essence.
Is unapproachable in that sense.
It's too great for us and to approach in his.
Greatness of his own being.
But it's a wonderful thing to be able to.
Know God is light and have a respect, a reverential respect for God, but it also brings with it when there's disobedience, when there's that which is not consistent with what God is. There's a necessary as far as it is with God that we recognize something called fear. And so every one of us.
And a very significant way of known fear with respect to God.
And we say.
Please God, do something for me. And so it was that only God can do something for us, because God is the only one that can come into that and remove that fear. We can't in ourselves do anything to remove it. And so God with Adam, he clothed him with coats of skin.
And he gave him at least a measure of peace within himself.
And so it is that when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are brought to have peace with God.
Odd.
But we, I'm just not here to emphasize that part of it particularly. But yes, we have peace with God and we can have settled peace with God so that we do not fear the judgment of hell. We do not fear the judgment of the lake of fire, but we have total peace about that. And many of us do. Many, many of us may have gone through periods in our lives that lasted for months or weeks or years until that piece was brought to us. And we don't have time to look at that side of it particularly.
But.
We still don't. We know what fear is.
We still experience fear, don't we? Even if we have a very settled peace with God. And I want to look at 3:00, we'll never cover more than scratch the surface of it, but I wanna look at 3 instances in the Word of God where people feared the first being Joe.
Second being David and the third being the disciples. So turn with me to the book of Job and we'll have a little bit of a a little illustration of something about fear in the life of Job, perhaps something that we have to deal with in our lives as well.
Job chapter one.
We'll read the verses 1St and then comment on them.
Job chapter one, verse one. There was a man in the land of us whose name was Job. He was a man perfect and upright and one that feared God and astute evil. That's the reverential fear of God.
And umm verse 8 The Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in all the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and this cheweth evil. Then Satan answered the Lord, and said that Job fear God for not.
Has not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he have on every side?
In other words, Satan said. Well, yeah, I fears, but.
You're so protected him that he's not exposed to anything, So what does he have to fear? Turn over to Chapter 3.
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And verse 25. For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet. Yet trouble came. Chapter 9.
Uh, Chapter 9 and verse 30, if I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daisman betwixt us, that I might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear.
Terrify me.
Then I would speak and not fear him, but it is not so with me. Chapter 23.
Chapter 23 and verse 10. But he knoweth the way that I take. When he had tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held His steps. His way have I kept and not declined, neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips. I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him, and what his sole desireth even that he doeth.
For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and such things are with him. Therefore I am troubled at His presence when I consider I am afraid of Him.
For God maketh my heart soft in the Almighty, troubleeth me, because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath He covered the darkness from my face.
Job is a man, an object lesson to us in multiple ways, but he's still teaches us something about the matter of fear.
Joe was a man, if we could use the expression. He was a believer.
In fact, he was an admirable believer. There wasn't anybody like him in his day.
He was a man that feared God. He had a tremendous respect and awe toward God and he lived accordingly in his personal life.
But as this trouble comes upon him and God opens up what's inside, we see that there was hidden fear in the heart of Job. We see in Job that there was a man who had certain things that he feared might happen in his life and when they came.
Said that's what I feared.
That's what I feared. I thought that might happen.
We ask ourselves that question, Is there hidden fear in any of our hearts this afternoon? Is there something in us that we fear?
That we say what if?
This or that might happen, and then what? And so we fear.
We have that hidden. No one else knows about it. No one else knew how Job felt. Even his wife, I don't think understood or knew.
But he had something inside of him that caused him not to be totally unafraid.
Was it sin like Adam?
Not an act of sin.
Yes, if we have disobeyed God in some way and we've hidden it.
The wicked flee when no man pursueth. A guilty conscience makes a person afraid and and try to hide and to flee from God and feel like everybody knows, even when nobody knows because of the guilty conscience within. But Job didn't have that.
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He wasn't with some hidden sin and that he was conscious of in his life. In fact, we learned from.
Uh, chapter 23 that he says, as it were, if I could put it this way in other chapters, he says.
God can do whatever he wants and I can't stop him, and that makes me afraid.
He said at one point, and in fact he sins in it later on when he is at where he says it doesn't matter whether you're good or bad, whether you're righteous or unrighteous, God's gonna do what he wants. Because Job looked at himself and he said I'm living right and even if God slays me, I'm not gonna give up my own righteousness.
I'm gonna remain faithful.
Even if he takes me to being right, to being righteous.
As long as that spirit is in us, we will never know the absence of fear.
What do I mean?
Have you ever had something happen in your life and you thought, why did the Lord allow this? I've been living right?
Or have you ever done something wrong and you kind of inside expect something bad to happen?
It's kind of how the Old Testament Saints lived.
Because they lived on the ground of their own responsibility before God and being able to do right.
I don't think there's an Old Testament St. who, and if I could speak properly, had a chance to live without fear.
Because they did not know the truth of Christianity.
They might have had a glimpse of it, they might have been able to look beyond, but I don't think, at least in what was revealed, they knew the foundation of what it is to be without fear.
Job is an ex wonderful example of it. He didn't know. He didn't have a solid foundation not to fear, he knew God.
As holy and righteous.
But he didn't have the revelation of God as love as we have it.
And so we didn't have that, which casts out beer in a perfect way and so.
Joe had a lesson to learn. He was righteous. He did have reverence for God. But why? Because God put it in him. Because God put it in him. And he turns around and takes the credit for it. And God says, Joe, you're honoring yourself. I'm gonna have to teach you the lesson that what you are comes from me, not comes from you.
And so he had a lesson to learn, and he does learn his lesson and, uh, gets great blessing from it. And it's a difficult but necessary lesson of life to come to that point where the soul rests upon what God is and what God is toward them, rather than what they are for God and what they are in themselves.
But Joe didn't really fully learn that lesson. It came for others. Let's look at David. Just a small moment.
In Psalm 23, where we're so familiar.
With it.
Psalms 23.
We love the verse.
Even though it's hard to practice it.
In the realities of life, Psalm 23, verse four, Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
And then Psalm 27.
The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of 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 come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumble and fell, and so on.
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Verse four. One thing of my desire to the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life. Behold the beauty of the Lord to inquire in his temple, for in the time of trouble he shall hide me.
In his pavilion and the secret of his Tabernacle. Shall he hide me? He shall set me upon a rock.
Then let's go over to Psalm 56.
Stop.
Umm.
Sum 56.
Be merciful endomo God for man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppressed with me.
Uh, mine enemies would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me. O thou most holy, when what time I'm afraid.
I will trust in the.
In God I will praise His word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
I bring out David because I think it's something that we all can relate to and experience and that is at times like David.
We're not afraid, we say, Well, the Lord's gonna take care of it. I can trust him. And whatever happens, I'm not gonna have the fear of man.
And in the 20 Psalm 23, we have a little of that and Psalm 26. But here in this Psalm, he says what time I'm afraid then I'll trust too. And I think many of us have experienced that in our lives that.
We haven't, if you will, learned our lesson completely. I don't think any of us will fully in this life. But we can grow, and that is that we're not.
That which, oh, I'm afraid and, uh, another time, well, no, we, we feel up on top of it. We feel on top of the situation or closer to the Lord or something. And so we say, well, no, I'm not afraid.
But we have a lot to learn, so we we have to ask God to help us.
Can I tell you how this subject came about?
Police confession. I haven't learned what I'm talking about very well.
A couple days ago I was called and asked to.
Uh, the responsibility of this hour here.
I said yes.
Umm. Usually when that happens, you start, as time permits, to think a little bit about what you say. Lord what?
Would you have me say and ask the Lord to give thoughts from himself?
So time passes and this morning comes and.
There's only three words before me, and three words didn't seem like an adequate number of words for an hour.
We'll come to those 3 words later. 3 words or it is I.
But what happens when time starts to run out? Well, you start getting a little uncomfortable feeling in the stomach.
I was sitting in my chair 5 minutes before this meeting started and everybody in the room seemed to be pretty relaxed.
Enjoying one another's company in fellowship.
I wasn't feeling that way.
I didn't feel relaxed in the same way.
I can say without fear of contradiction, Lord Jesus wouldn't have felt that way.
But it's what we are. It's the practical side that at when we're not in a circumstance, it's often easy to tell somebody else, just trust the Lord, Don't be afraid everything will be all right.
It's different, you know, the disciples in the boat weren't telling each other that.
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They were in the same circumstance and as a consequence, we're like David. I believe in that. You might say it comes and it goes, but, uh, but the point in it is we can learn the principle and grow in the principle that casts out fear. Before we get there, though, let's go to Matthew's Gospel and look at the disciples for a few minutes in Matthew's Gospel first chapter 8.
And Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 16. And when even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. And he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaias The prophet saying himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. Now when Jesus saw a great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the year have nests, but the Son of Man.
That's not where to lay his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. And when he had entered into a ship, his disciples followed him, and behold, there arose The Tempest in the sea, and so much that the ship was covered with waves. But he was asleep, And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are you fearful, Oh, ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the waves.
And the sea. And there was a great calm. OK, before we comment here, let's go to chapter 14.
Chapter 14.
Verse 19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes. And looking up to heaven, he blessed and break, and gave his the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled, and they took up of the fragments that remained 12 baskets full. And they that had eaten were about 5000 men beside women and children. And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship.
And to go before him under the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when they even evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the 4th watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a Spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spoke unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith.
Wherefore digital doubt. And when they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. One more verse. You can keep your finger here. We're gonna come right back. But Isaiah chapter 46.
Isaiah 46 and verse four. And even under your old age, I am he, and even to Jorge's I will carry you. I have made and I will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you.
Fear or the Christian?
Often results because of a lack of true knowledge.
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Of the Lord Jesus or God.
All of us come short in that, but there's a positive sense in which God is working through our lives to teach us more of Himself.
And sometimes he brings us into circumstances in our lives that expose to us.
We're not always aware of it, but they expose our lack of knowledge of himself.
We don't know God as He wants us to know Him yet fully, but day by day in our lives He is working with us so that our eternity will be full and rich.
And blessed to him and to us.
In this first account of the disciples on the sea.
When the problem, the circumstance comes up, who put him into that circumstance?
Well, our debt.
He said let's go.
They were his followers and they got in the boat and they were in the boat together.
He was right there with them.
But when a situation comes up.
That naturally will say, produces fear among men. They were just like everybody else. They were afraid.
Might say they weren't any different than their neighbor in this situation.
In Mark's account of it.
So I read it this morning.
My soul was smitten.
By their words they said, Lord, cherish thou not.
That we perish.
Could we ever, in any circumstance that we will ever pass through of our lives, rightfully say to the Lord Jesus, Lord Karis, thou not?
Can we go to the cross and look at him?
And in the light of the cross, say, Lord, karst thou not?
Could we ever doubt or have a right to doubt any possible circumstance that could ever come into our lives?
With our God as we go to the cross.
My heart.
Yeah.
Did I ever have those feelings come up in me? Lord Charis thou thou.
It is a statement.
That I have not learned.
That God is love.
Yes, I know God loves, but the very essence of his being.
God is love.
In its practical sense hasn't had its way with my soul.
As it needs to and as it will.
It also says in another account master.
And as master.
That means teacher.
Teacher cares, thou know.
Well, I think many of us have gotten beyond that sense of the passage that we recognize the Lord Jesus isn't just a teacher.
But it's an expression that exists that they didn't know him.
In the second account.
There's growth.
In them.
And in the accounts, uh, we don't have time to really look at it, the details of it, but there's, there's a, there's a clear indication that they had grown in their souls and to who he was.
Peter personally.
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Lord, In fact, it's kind of interesting characteristic of Peter. He says command, if it's really you, command me.
Bid me in the sense has the board command me. Tell me to come out of this boat and walk to you.
I admire Peter.
But I wanna say, brethren.
In learning not to be afraid.
You and I may not be called to walk on the Sea of Galilee or any other sea to come to the Lord, but in a spiritual way every one of us has to learn to walk on water.
If we're to learn what it is not to fear.
What do I mean by that?
The Lord puts us into circumstances in our lives.
That we cannot be sustained.
In by the things of this of nature.
That is, without a boat.
Without insurance, insurance policy, without a car that necessarily works, without circumstances that we can control and so on and so forth. All those things that if they're in place, give us a comfort level perhaps and tell the Lord takes us out of that place, says come to me and we have to come to him and nature won't support us in any way. And if we are looking at the circumstance.
Then fear comes and we think.
But as Peter did, and as the Lord knows, and He'll never let us drown.
Immediately, as Peter said, cried out to the Lord, Lord save me. The Lord reaches him and he saves him. And the reason I read the verses in Isaiah 46 is if needs be, Lord not only reaches out His hand, but he picks us up and he carries us, and He will do so.
He'll never fail us, but he wants us to learn something about himself that is learned whether he's in the boat with us or whether we're in the boat and he's not. In other words, regardless, he can arrange things in such a way. Did he not know? Tells us in one account. He saw him out there, He saw him out on the sea, he saw what was happening.
He put him in it.
Every circumstance through which we pass in life is controlled by a God of love.
Not just a God of power, but a God of perfect love and so.
The largest sometimes does, perhaps.
You got wide little faith. Why do you doubt?
Let's finish up with going back to First John Chapter 4.
First John, chapter 4.
And we have known verse 16 believe that God, the love that God hath to us, God is love.
Verse 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Verse 18 There is No Fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear that hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love.
The Lord Jesus went through his life in fellowship with his God.
With an unquestioned.
Unquestionable confidence that God is love.
And as A and the as God is light, that God had complete and full power over all things, and consequently he never feared.
Try to think about it in my own soul and.
Talked again in my mind is what if one of my children runs out into the street and I see a car coming?
Immediately first thought I have is why didn't I take care of them that they were out in the street in the first place?
But, and that's sometimes what does give fear to us is because of our own failure. And so where do we get into this problem of fear? A lot of times rather than it comes from self occupation.
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I fear.
It's my reputation is at stake. I fear the failure that I won't be able to do something. I fear this. I fear some animal that God has told me I have dominion over and so on. And so we get into all these fears, but a lot of them come from.
Self occupation. There's an eye at the root of them. And the Lord Jesus who did not.
Have fear was totally, fully, perfectly delivered from himself.
He was selfless in that way. His was perfectly given over to doing the will of a God of perfect love and because he was delivered from or didn't need to be delivered in that way was perfect in his being. But because he was that way, he didn't have the experience of self occupation that immediately what's gonna happen to me and so on.
And what God does.
Gradually, little by little, in the work of his the Spirit in US.
Is he takes by the Spirit through the word of God, through the circumstances of life, and he imparts puts in us the practical.
Expression of his own love. We can't do it ourselves. We can't put it there by our own efforts, but we're not perfected yet in the sense that that process is not complete, but it's what God is doing in US, and so he puts his own love.
In US and as and it and it, when it expresses itself, it expresses itself without self occupation, without selfishness, without fear of anything, because God.
Is in control with perfect love. And so just to finish with those words the Lord said to them on the sea, he said, Do you have good cheer or be of good courage?
It is I be not afraid. May the Lord help us whenever there is fear, to be able to look beyond the circumstance and be able to say one-on-one with the Lord Jesus, have Him say to our own hearts It is I.
It is I.
Is something come into the life?
Then God can say to us, it is I.
May the Lord help us not to allow unbelief, which produces fear, to get between our souls and God saying to us, it is I.
Be not afraid.
I love you with a perfect love.
And it is I.
May we see him?
With that eye of faith.
Just one comment.
Unbelief makes us blind self will.
Makes us deaf.
May we not be deaf or blind to be able to see the Lord. And when he says to us, it is I let's pray.
Our God and Father.