The Gospel’s War Against Our Fears and Insecurities
00:00:00.000 | (music)
00:00:04.000 | So many of our emails are asking about how to
00:00:08.000 | overcome the fears of life and how to overcome personal
00:00:12.000 | insecurities as well. We all want to live with a fearless
00:00:16.000 | confidence in God and for many of us that fearless confidence
00:00:20.000 | is hard to find. On this theme, I
00:00:24.000 | found the following sermon clip from Pastor John back in 1983
00:00:28.000 | looking at the ministry of the Apostle Peter and his fears and his
00:00:32.000 | insecurities as they are recorded in scripture.
00:00:36.000 | The Apostle Peter was Jewish of course and Christ changed his life.
00:00:40.000 | Peter experienced a radical transformation in his thinking about God's plan.
00:00:44.000 | He came to discover that the Messiah had not just come for Israel
00:00:48.000 | but for all the peoples, all the nations.
00:00:52.000 | That's basically the point of his vision in which a tablecloth full of unclean
00:00:56.000 | animals descends from the heavens in Acts
00:01:00.000 | chapter 10. The gospel was for the Gentiles
00:01:04.000 | too. That was the point of the vision. So Peter should have known better
00:01:08.000 | than to fall into a fearful insecurity when he met others
00:01:12.000 | who contradicted this point. Galatians 2.12
00:01:16.000 | explains what happened in his life where we read this, that "for before
00:01:20.000 | certain men came from James, he, Peter,
00:01:24.000 | was eating with the Gentiles, the non-Jews.
00:01:28.000 | But when they came, he drew back and separated himself
00:01:32.000 | fearing the circumcision party, the Jews."
00:01:36.000 | That's Galatians 2.12. It's this context
00:01:40.000 | that sets the stage for an important life lesson about overcoming
00:01:44.000 | fear and insecurities. Here's Pastor John.
00:01:48.000 | In other words, God has shown me that
00:01:52.000 | redemptive history teaches that
00:01:56.000 | there are no preconditions for the receiving of the Holy Spirit
00:02:00.000 | but one, hearing the gospel with
00:02:04.000 | faith. Isn't that what Paul said in
00:02:08.000 | Galatians 3.2 when he said
00:02:12.000 | "Did you receive the Holy Spirit by works of the law
00:02:16.000 | or by hearing with faith?"
00:02:20.000 | That's the gospel. That's the good news. And that
00:02:24.000 | means that when Peter in Antioch was eating with
00:02:28.000 | Gentiles in all freedom, he was walking in
00:02:32.000 | sync with the gospel. And Paul was happy.
00:02:36.000 | "Way to go, Peter! You've come a long way, brother!"
00:02:40.000 | Then something happened.
00:02:44.000 | Even though he was honoring the all-sufficiency of Christ,
00:02:48.000 | walking in love, trusting the Lord, free!
00:02:52.000 | Here come the men from James.
00:02:56.000 | Now, we can only
00:03:00.000 | speculate as to what was their relationship to James.
00:03:04.000 | Was James endorsing what they were going to say? Or we don't even know
00:03:08.000 | what they were going to say for sure. We don't know
00:03:12.000 | why they came. But one thing is made very explicit.
00:03:16.000 | Peter was afraid of them. Why?
00:03:20.000 | Maybe they were capable of violence.
00:03:24.000 | He had really offended the conservative party
00:03:28.000 | in Jerusalem. Maybe it was simply that
00:03:32.000 | he would be called upon to give a theological justification of how he could
00:03:36.000 | neglect Leviticus 11, it's the word of God!
00:03:40.000 | And he would come off poorly before the Christians in Antioch, and he doesn't
00:03:44.000 | want to. Or maybe, and this seems to me maybe more likely,
00:03:48.000 | if he gets in bad
00:03:52.000 | with the conservatives in Jerusalem, he's going to lose
00:03:56.000 | his status and his respect as the leader in that church, which he still
00:04:00.000 | possessed. And in fact, that happened, because James, by the end of the book of Acts,
00:04:04.000 | is the leader of the church in Jerusalem.
00:04:08.000 | We're not told. But he was afraid, and in a
00:04:12.000 | moment of weakness, he cut himself off
00:04:16.000 | from those Gentile believers. This is a
00:04:20.000 | great lesson in leadership here. You see what happens when a leader
00:04:24.000 | goes wrong? Everybody went wrong!
00:04:28.000 | The whole Jewish contingent in the church
00:04:32.000 | fell into line with Peter, and Barnabas, son of
00:04:36.000 | encouragement, lover of Paul, on his first missionary journey
00:04:40.000 | among the Gentiles. The pressure was so strong!
00:04:44.000 | He went with them, left all
00:04:48.000 | the Gentiles alone. Now put yourself in the position of a
00:04:52.000 | Gentile believer in Antioch. What would that have meant to you?
00:04:56.000 | According to verse 14,
00:05:00.000 | Paul says that Peter and Barnabas and the others
00:05:04.000 | are, to use the words of the RSV, not
00:05:08.000 | walking straightforward about the truth of the gospel.
00:05:12.000 | A better way of saying it may be, they're not walking
00:05:16.000 | right with the truth of the gospel. They are out of sync
00:05:20.000 | with the gospel. Now, do you see what that means?
00:05:24.000 | That means that it is true
00:05:28.000 | the benefits of the gospel come on one condition alone,
00:05:32.000 | hearing it with faith. But when the gospel
00:05:36.000 | comes, it changes your life
00:05:40.000 | so that there is a life in sync with the gospel
00:05:44.000 | and there is a life out of sync with the gospel. That's
00:05:48.000 | why Paul, even though he was standing up for the complete freedom
00:05:52.000 | in grace of the gospel, could say, "You're out of line.
00:05:56.000 | You're out of sync with the gospel.
00:06:00.000 | You don't attain the benefits of the gospel by doing a little moral
00:06:04.000 | cleanup job on your life. You obtain it
00:06:08.000 | forgiveness, cleansing, joy, peace, power.
00:06:12.000 | You obtain all that by faith in the gospel.
00:06:16.000 | But when the gospel so grips you, when you
00:06:20.000 | begin to hear and believe the drumbeat
00:06:24.000 | of the gospel, the rhythm of your steps
00:06:28.000 | changes. And so Paul took Peter to task
00:06:32.000 | and we need to see three things
00:06:36.000 | that were out of sync with the gospel here in closing.
00:06:40.000 | I was teaching a Bible study on this text to a group of
00:06:44.000 | men yesterday and I asked them, "What are the three things
00:06:48.000 | out of sync with the gospel here?" And they nailed every one of them right on the head.
00:06:52.000 | Number one, fear. Number
00:06:56.000 | two, hypocrisy. And number three,
00:07:00.000 | legalism. And let's look at those together
00:07:04.000 | because we don't want to be out of sync with the gospel when we leave this
00:07:08.000 | church, do we? Fear is out of
00:07:12.000 | step with the gospel. The gospel does not beget fear.
00:07:16.000 | Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:7, "God did not give us
00:07:20.000 | a spirit of fear, but of power,
00:07:24.000 | love, self-control." If you
00:07:28.000 | come this morning, and I'm sure in a crowd like this there are many,
00:07:32.000 | you come this morning afraid. Maybe of
00:07:36.000 | something very specific that's on the way. Or maybe,
00:07:40.000 | like sometimes happens to me, just a cloud of anxiety. You can't put your finger
00:07:44.000 | on what in the world it is. You just feel tense and anxious
00:07:48.000 | and something's going to go bad today. And if you
00:07:52.000 | come like that this morning, you know what you need more than anything in the world?
00:07:56.000 | You need to see the gospel.
00:08:00.000 | You need to see that the gospel
00:08:04.000 | says something about God's intentions towards
00:08:08.000 | you this week. When you look at the death of Jesus on the cross
00:08:12.000 | for your sins, you know what that says about God's intentions for you?
00:08:16.000 | It says, "I am for you
00:08:20.000 | and not against you with all my might this week."
00:08:24.000 | Paul put it like this, "What then shall we say to this?
00:08:28.000 | If God is for us, who can be against us? If He did not
00:08:32.000 | spare His only Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not with
00:08:36.000 | Him give us all things? Who shall bring any charge
00:08:40.000 | against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
00:08:44.000 | Who is to condemn? It was Christ Jesus who died,
00:08:48.000 | yes, was raised, is at the right hand of God, and intercedes
00:08:52.000 | for us." If you see the gospel
00:08:56.000 | and believe the gospel, you know what your heart cries out?
00:09:00.000 | "The Lord is my helper. I will
00:09:04.000 | not fear. What can man do to me?"
00:09:08.000 | So I hope that if you are burned with fear this morning, you just,
00:09:12.000 | the Lord will grant the eyes of your hearts
00:09:16.000 | to be open to see the gospel. Second,
00:09:20.000 | hypocrisy is out of step with the gospel. Verse 13
00:09:24.000 | says, "The rest of the Jews
00:09:28.000 | acted insincerely." Literally, the word is hypocritically.
00:09:32.000 | "So that even Barnabas was carried away by their
00:09:36.000 | hypocrisy." Peter and Barnabas and the Jews
00:09:40.000 | were being two-faced. They were saying
00:09:44.000 | on the one hand,
00:09:48.000 | "In my heart, I really believe that I am free to
00:09:52.000 | live like the Gentiles and not keep the ceremonial
00:09:56.000 | dietary laws anymore. But with my behavior, I will
00:10:00.000 | say to avoid the censure of the
00:10:04.000 | Judaizers, 'Oh, I'm really living like a Jew up here in Antioch.
00:10:08.000 | I'm keeping the law.'" Why were they
00:10:12.000 | doing that? Because they were so incredibly fearful
00:10:16.000 | of the persecution or criticism or censure or
00:10:20.000 | something they were going to get from these people.
00:10:24.000 | Isn't it true? Test your own experience and what you've seen in others.
00:10:28.000 | Isn't it true that all hypocrisy is rooted
00:10:32.000 | in fear or insecurity?
00:10:36.000 | And that's out of step with the gospel. Insecurity
00:10:40.000 | is inconsistent with the gospel. And I could just,
00:10:44.000 | I don't know how many in this room would be insecure this morning, just
00:10:48.000 | really insecure. No root
00:10:52.000 | in stability and firmness and strength in your life so that you
00:10:56.000 | have confidence and boldness as you walk through your days
00:11:00.000 | in God. And you know the battle that you are
00:11:04.000 | fighting when some people
00:11:08.000 | or circumstances approach you, they demand
00:11:12.000 | if you have integrity, that you stand up for your
00:11:16.000 | principles, but instead of standing up for your principles, you put up
00:11:20.000 | a front, you commit hypocrisy to avoid their
00:11:24.000 | censure. You know what battle you're fighting at that moment?
00:11:28.000 | A battle to believe the gospel.
00:11:32.000 | Some of us sort of divide our lives up and we say,
00:11:36.000 | "Well, the gospel was what I had dealings with when I was a little child and
00:11:40.000 | walked the aisle or when I was humbled by the Lord and converted.
00:11:44.000 | And now my battles are something else." That's not true.
00:11:48.000 | It's all in the gospel. And every
00:11:52.000 | day the walk of faith is a
00:11:56.000 | battle to believe the gospel, that God is
00:12:00.000 | for you and not against you, as was declared in Jesus
00:12:04.000 | Christ when he died on the cross.
00:12:08.000 | And there's a second way, besides that great statement of God being
00:12:12.000 | for us, that the gospel helps me avoid hypocrisy.
00:12:16.000 | I picture Jesus in the gospel
00:12:20.000 | facing the cross,
00:12:24.000 | a worse threat than I've ever faced or
00:12:28.000 | ever will face, having the option to play the
00:12:32.000 | hypocrite. He could have denied before
00:12:36.000 | Caiaphas that he was the Son of God and saved his skin
00:12:40.000 | like Peter and the Jews denied their principles
00:12:44.000 | and saved their noses. And he didn't for
00:12:48.000 | me and you. He laid himself down
00:12:52.000 | on that cross without playing the hypocrite that I
00:12:56.000 | might have life. And here
00:13:00.000 | comes a temptation for me to play the hypocrite and avoid some little
00:13:04.000 | criticism or persecution. And shall I not
00:13:08.000 | be shamed by the cross, the gospel,
00:13:12.000 | if I play that game?
00:13:16.000 | Center your life on Jesus Christ and his gospel and the root
00:13:20.000 | of hypocrisy will be severed. Yeah, the gospel severing power
00:13:24.000 | to kill the fear and insecurities of our lives. There's some
00:13:28.000 | potent truth here in this clip taken from John Piper's sermon titled
00:13:32.000 | "With the Gospel" preached on February 27th, 1983.
00:13:36.000 | It can be found online at DesiringGod.org.
00:13:40.000 | If you have a sermon clip for me, email me your name, hometown, the sermon title, and the
00:13:44.000 | timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio. Tell me what stands out to you and put the word "clip"
00:13:48.000 | in the subject line of an email and send it to me at
00:13:52.000 | AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. That's our email address.
00:13:56.000 | AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. Well, it's interesting that the only time
00:14:00.000 | Galatians 2.12 has ever been mentioned on this podcast
00:14:04.000 | until today was in an episode on Christian rap
00:14:08.000 | of all topics. The episode is titled "Must Christian Rap
00:14:12.000 | Have the Gospel in Every Song?"
00:14:16.000 | That was APJ 188 on what it means for Christian music to be
00:14:20.000 | in step with the gospel. Really good episode, episode APJ
00:14:24.000 | 188. And speaking of being out of step with the gospel,
00:14:28.000 | fear is a big deal. We saw that today when we saw that God gave us a
00:14:32.000 | spirit not of fear, but of power and love
00:14:36.000 | and self-control. That again is 2 Timothy 1.7.
00:14:40.000 | We should know that text really well, but knowing that text
00:14:44.000 | really well doesn't make the fear go away. That's the dilemma a
00:14:48.000 | fearing Christian named Eric is now facing in his life.
00:14:52.000 | We address his ongoing struggle with fear next time. I'm your host Tony Rehnke, and we're rejoined
00:14:56.000 | in studio with Pastor John on Friday. We'll see you then.
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