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The Differences Between Faith and Fear - 2

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• I started a brief series last week from Numbers chapter 13 on the differences between faith and fear. So if you look in Numbers 13 beginning there with verse 1, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel, of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a ruler among them." Now, I pointed out in the first message last week that faith and fear are opposites. If you are exercising faith, you're not in fear. If you're fearful, then you're not exercising faith. The Bible teaches us not only does love cast out fear, but the Bible also teaches us that faith casts out fear as well. For instance, notice if you would in Mark 4 and verse 40, the Bible teaches us what Jesus Christ said to his disciples when the storm was on the sea. And he said this, "Why are you so fearful? Have you no faith?" So obviously if you're fearful, you're not exercising faith.

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• And if you're exercising faith, then you're not going to be fearful. I also pointed out how it should be evident to everyone how vital and important faith is to each child of God. Because the Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse 6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him." Also pointed out how the Christian is to walk by faith, live by faith, and even fight by faith. Everything he does is to be done in faith. And I also want to emphasize this because it needs repeating. Faith does not exist in a vacuum. Faith is not some little abstract thing floating around somewhere in the universe. Faith has a substance and faith has an evidence. We look at Hebrews 11 in verse 1 where the Bible says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." And I shared with you how the word substance literally meant a foundation.

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• a substructure on which the edifice rests. It's translated sometimes in our Bible as confidence. So faith does indeed have a foundation. That foundation is indeed the Word of God. And then faith has an evidence, and I pointed out the fact, that we test God, we try God, we evidence God by our obedience. And I look to Malachi chapter 3 and verse 10 where God asked this question, "Will a man rob God?"

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• Then he said, "Yea, you have robbed me." And they asked, "Where have we robbed you?" He said, "In tithes and offerings." And then in verse 10 he said, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven, and pour you out of blessings, so that you cannot contain it." But God said, "Prove me." And the word prove there literally means to test or to try. But I pointed out this is not tempting God. The way we prove God is by obedience to His Word and obedience to His law. So, in the last message, I pointed out that faith regards the promises of God and fear disregards the promises of God. Faith and fear are opposites. And I also said this, that fear not only despises God's promises, fear actually calls God a liar. Fear is the foundation for rebellion.

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• We'll see that just a little bit today, but next Sunday we will see it in greater detail. When one fears, he does not act, he reacts. The only possible outcome for a failure to obey is the act of disobedience, which is in its essence rebellion. So today I want to come to the second point and show you how faith respects the power of God and fear disrespects the power of God. So, faith regards the promises of God, fear disregards. Now we come to faith respecting the power of God and fear disrespecting the power of God. One could accurately say that fear not only disrespects the power of God, but fear also distrusts God and His power. Because fear is the opposite of faith, it does not believe God's promises or the power of God. So according to fear, God either cannot or will not do that which He has promised.

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• If He will not do it, then He is a liar. If He cannot do it, then He has no power. So actually, fear, literally, denies the omnipotence of God as well then as His veracity and His faithfulness.

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• Now, I want you to look at Numbers chapter 13, and let me show you how Caleb is speaking from an accurate heart, a whole heart. Joshua and Caleb were the only two of the twelve spies that brought back a true report. And when you get to Numbers chapter 14, and also in the book of Joshua, the Bible tells us that Caleb followed the Lord with his whole heart. So, look if you would, in Numbers chapter 13, notice verse 28. Here's what Caleb says, "Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great.

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• And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan."

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• Now watch, "...and Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it." Notice, let us go up at once and possess it. We are well able to overcome it.

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• Now, I want you to understand that God's promise and God's power go together. Caleb believed God's promise. If you look back to verse 2 of Numbers chapter 13, God said, "...send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel." So, God had promised them this land. Faith believed that promise, and now faith is saying, in verse 30, I believe God's power as well. We're well able to overcome it. So, Caleb is saying, I believe that God is able to accomplish that which He has promised. I want to show you. I want you to hold Numbers chapter 13, but turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 14. Here's an amazing statement concerning Joshua.

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• I would really love for this to be true concerning myself, but I think it's not. So if you'll notice Joshua chapter 14, beginning there with verse 6, look if you would what Caleb says. Joshua chapter 14, verse 6. "Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me and thee in Kadesh Barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again, as was in mine heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people to melt. But I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, ever since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness.

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• Now watch! And now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old, eighty-five years old." Verse 11, "'As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in.

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• Now therefore, give me this mountain, where the Lord spake in that day. For thou heardest in that day how the Anakims, that is the giants, were there, and that the cities were great and fenced. If so be the Lord will be with me, that I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said." So here's a man, 85 years old, that says, I want my mountain. I don't care if the giants are there.

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• God said I can have this land, and I believe His power will enable me to have this land. Now, please remember this today. I've already said it. I will say it again. God's promises and God's power go together. You cannot have one without the other, and you cannot deny one without denying the other. You will remember Genesis chapter 18. Abraham entertained these visitors. One of them was the Lord.

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• Two of them were angels. And our Lord promised Abraham a seed. And of course, they were already old. And the Bible tells us that Sarah laughed in her tent. And in Genesis 18, verses 13 and 14, "And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? Then God asked Abraham this question. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? As the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son." Here's what God said. I promised it.

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• I will bring it to pass. It's just that simple. The promises of God and the power of God are hand in glove.

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• Now, I want to show you another example. I want you to turn. The whole number is 13, but I want you to turn to Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32. This to me is an amazing passage, and yet at the same time, it's a passage that will kind of make you smile, as well as scratch your head, because God even rebukes Jeremiah in the same way that He rebuked Sarah.

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• Now, let me give you the background. In fact, you're going to see it just as I read these verses momentarily. Everybody knows that Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. And Jeremiah was witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar with his armies had encompassed the city. The people were being slaughtered. They were being captured. Everything was being destroyed. Everything was being stolen. And God tells Jeremiah to buy some land in Judah. Now, God promised to bring the people back in 70 years. So God tells Jeremiah, buy some land during this time of war. So look in Jeremiah chapter 32, beginning there, if you would please, with verse 24. Look what it said. Jeremiah is talking. Jeremiah 32 verse 24, "Behold the mounts, they are coming to the city to take it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it.

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• because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence. And what thou hast spoken is come to pass, and behold, thou seest it." So Jeremiah is reminding God, You told us this is going to happen, and it's happening. Now watch verse 25, "...And thou hast said unto me, O LORD God, buy thee a field for money, and take witnesses. For the city is given to the hand of the Chaldeans." What am I going to buy a field for? We're losing everything. Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

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• Is there anything too hard for me?" In other words, Jeremiah, buy the land, I want to bring you back just like I said I was. Is there anything too hard for me? I am the Lord, God of all flesh. So, I'm pointing out again how the power of God goes along with the promises of God. Arthur W. Pink said this, listen carefully, "Nothing is too hard for him. If God were stinted in might and had a limit to his strength, we might well despair. But seeing that he is clothed with omnipotence, no prayer is too hard for him to answer, no need too great for him to supply, no passion too strong for him to subdue, no temptation too powerful for him to deliver from, no misery too deep for him to relieve. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

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• And then he quotes Ephesians 3, 20 and 21, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all the ages, world without end. Amen." So we have to grasp this principle today, that the promises and the power of God go together. They cannot exist without the other. If one believes the promises, he must believe the power. If one denies the promises, he must deny the power.

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• Now, we're given an example of this. You don't have to turn there. But in Romans chapter 4, God has promised Abraham and Sarah a child. When God brought that promise to pass, Abraham was a hundred years old. Sarah was 90 years old. And the Bible tells us in Romans 4 and verse 21, concerning Abraham, "And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform." You know, the Bible says, he considered not his body now dead, nor the fact that Sarah was barren. What did he say? "I'm fully persuaded that what God has promised, He's able to perform. His power will bring to pass His promise." Wow. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said it like this, "God's power is like Himself, self-existent, self-sustained.

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• The mightiest men of earth cannot add so much as of a shadow of increased power to the omnipotent one. He sits on no buttress thrown and leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by his courtiers, nor does it borrow its splendor from its creatures. He is himself the great central source and originator of all power." In not too many weeks in the future, if the Lord allows us all to live, I'm going to be expounding and explaining on the omnipotence of God a little more fully. But let me just point out the fact that one of the names of God in Scripture is power. Think about this. In Mark 14 and verse 62, Jesus said, when they asked Him, "Art Thou the Son of God?" Jesus said, "I am, and you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power." Wow! Who is He sitting on the right hand of? God the Father. But now He calls God the Father, the right hand of power. When you get to Psalm 62 and verse 11, "God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, Power belongeth unto God."

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• And God is indeed omnipotent. That means He has all power. In light of this truth, we may sing with the psalmist in Psalm 89, verse 13, "Thou hast a mighty arm, strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand." So here, Caleb is saying, let us go up at once. We are able to conquer. So faith, then, respects God's power. Fear denies God's power. Joshua and Caleb knew that God was far stronger than their enemies, and they believed not only His promise, but His power.

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• Now, I want you to look in Numbers chapter 13 again, beginning there at verse 31. Hear the ten spies. Number 13, verse 31, "But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight." Now, I want you to understand that fear is unreasonable.

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• And to show you the unreasonableness of fear, fear rages in spite of obvious facts. So, let me say it like this. Truth, facts, and evidence mean absolutely nothing to fear. Fear just regards anything and everything except itself. It seemed, if you read Numbers chapter 13, that it would be almost impossible for these people to deny the greatness and the graciousness of God. Not only did they have the testimony of Joshua and Caleb, they had the fruit of that land before their eyes.

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• Look at it in verse 27. They admitted in verse 27, number 13, "And they told him and said, We came into the land which thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it." Go back to verse 24. The place was called the Brook Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

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• Now, I pointed this out last week. They brought one cluster of grapes, and it was so great, they had to tie it to a pole, and it took two men to carry it on their shoulders. How can you deny facts? Here they could see the evidence, but they said, no, this is the land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. They brought this evil report against God and against the land. So fear is unreasonable. Fear denies facts. Fear perverts truth. It is impossible to reason with an individual who is full of fear. Logic, reason, understanding, and comprehension are all replaced with fear and fear alone.

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• Now, I want you to understand something. Fear exaggerates and fear magnifies. In verse 31, if you'll look there, "...but the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we." Wow! So you have to ask yourself, really? So these ten men now assume to know the power of the enemy and assume to know the power of their own people.

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• May I remind you that two million Israelites came out of Egypt. Over 600,000 men of war. And so now they're saying, 600,000 is nothing. We're not able to go up against this people. So they're discounting the leadership of Moses, the leadership of Joshua, because he was a servant to Moses. They're discounting their own military might, and they're certainly discounting the power of God. Caleb is the one who said, let's go up and take it. We're well able to take it.

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• They said, oh no, no, no. We're not able to do this. They said, look at it in verse 31, "for they are stronger than we." Really. They're stronger than we. That is, they said they're stronger in stature, they're stronger in numbers. So, here they wickedly questioned the power and truth and goodness of God. Let me show you something else. Go back to verse 28. Now, they admitted this in verse 28.

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• "Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land." That's a fact. "And the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there."

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• Now, I want to show you how fear magnifies and how fear exaggerates. Now, we know that there were walled cities. So I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would please, to the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy. And I want you to look there at verse 28. Deuteronomy 1, verse 28. I want you to watch this. Then we're coming right back. Remember now, they're walled. Now look how it changes. Just showing you how fear magnifies. Deuteronomy 1, verse 28.

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• Here's what the Bible said. The people are speaking, "Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The people is greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to the heaven." Moreover, we've seen the sons of the Anakims there. So they went from being walled to walled up to the heavens. Wow!

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• Now, go back to Numbers chapter 13 and look again at verse 32 and 33. In fact, the latter part of verse 32, we'll start where they said, "The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants."

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• "And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight." Fear always magnifies obstacles. And fear always magnifies the enemy. So what they're saying is this. These cities are walled up to the heaven. These giants are there. There's absolutely no way that we can conquer these people. So these people, these men, were either cowards, or they were timid, or they were maliciously misrepresenting the truth out of fear. And their fear was enhanced by the children of Anak. Now, if you'll look in Numbers 13 and verse 22, you have three sons of Anak listed there. "And they ascended by the south, and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, and Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak were." So here's three sons of Anak. Now, Arba was the father of Anak. And in Joshua 15 and verse 13, Arba, the grandfather, was the founder of Hebron which Caleb took. So they have seen some very tall men and obviously some very strong men.

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• Now let me just point something out. Just because you have a family or several families of very tall and very muscular and very strong men does not mean that the entire country is made up of such individuals. The family of Goliath was a huge family. And I don't mean in numbers, I mean in bulk. Goliath had several brothers, and they were all that which we would call giants. In fact, Goliath himself was almost nine feet tall, which would be unusual.

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• He would be the exception. And you know, when you stop and think about this, largeness or bigness really depends upon the perspective from which you're looking. Years ago, when I was in the university, each Sunday I would drive to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where I preached. It was about 30, 45 miles from where we lived. Well, Dr. Fred Affman, one of my friends and one of my instructors, also preached there, and so many times he would ride with me over there.

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• I'd drop him off at a certain point and someone would pick him up, and then I'd pick him back up that night and we'd ride back home together. Well, Dr. Affman was six, six and a half. And at that time I had a little Dodge Dart. So I drove, Dr. Affman rode on the passenger side, and Alice and our oldest daughter, who was about four at that time, were riding in the back seat.

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• So one Sunday morning I stopped. And Dr. Affman had to get out. He had to bend over and turn himself like this to get out of that little car. And then he was able to work himself and stand straight up. And then he had to bend back down and get his briefcase, you know, with his Bible in it, and then straighten back up. And as he straightened back up, the little voice from the back seat, Wendy, said, "Daddy, is that what the Bible means when it says there were giants in the earth in those days?"

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• Now, to a little four-year-old girl, a six-foot, six-and-a-half-inch man would be a giant, you know? If you're afraid of someone, they get bigger. They get larger. They get stronger. Fear always magnifies. When you stop and think about people being tall, everybody's heard of the Watusi tribe in Africa. All those people are over 7 feet tall. That's how they grow. I went to school with a young man. You notice, David, I said young man. I went to school with a young man. His father was 7 foot 2 inches tall. And any time you asked him how tall he was, he'd say, "Oh, 6 feet 14 inches." Well, that was a tall man, 7 foot 2 inches. There were a lot of big people.

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• Look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2. And by the way, all of those big people were conquered. It did not keep them from being unconquered. And Deuteronomy chapter 2, beginning there with verse 10. Watch carefully. Deuteronomy 2, verse 10, "...the Emims dwelt therein in time past, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakims, which also were accounted giants as the Anakims, and the Moabites called them Emims. The Horims also dwelt in Seir before that time, but the children of Esau succeeded them when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead as Israel did in the land of the possession which the Lord gave to them." So here were some people that were great and tall as the Anakims, but they were defeated. They were destroyed. So you could say what these people saw were very tall men and probably what we would call muscle-bound. They were big and they were strong. So look in Deuteronomy 3 and verse 11.

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• Here is Og, who was the king of Bashan. Evidently, he was a pretty good-sized man himself. In Deuteronomy chapter 3, notice verse 11. In fact, let's read verse 10. "And all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, and Salchah, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron.

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• Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man." Wow. Nine cubits. And the cubit was 18 inches. So you can figure out how big this bed was. Four cubits wide. Now, you could say, "Whoo, he must have been a mighty big man." Really? Well, let me tell you something. I could build myself a bed that's 12 feet long and 6 feet wide.

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• Would that make me any larger? No. In fact, one commentator said this, I want you to listen. I thought this was unique. He said, and I quote, "A bed is always larger than the man who sleeps in it. But in this case, this commentator suggested that Og intentionally exceeded the necessary size in order that posterity might be led to draw the more magnificent conclusion from the size of the bed as to the stature of the man who is accustomed to sleep in it." So, you leave such a wonderful bed and somebody says, "Wow, he must have been a big guy." Well, he probably was a big guy, but he was not necessarily all that big.

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• Now, I want you to go back to Numbers 13 and look at verse 33. Go back. Watch carefully. And here are the ten unbelieving spies. Here are the spies that are filled with fear. They said, "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, so were we in their sight." Let me say it again. Fear magnifies obstacles and fear magnifies enemies, while at the same time minimizing one's own position and one's own strength.

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• Every one of us probably can remember when we were children and were afraid. There's always a monster under the bed or a monster in the closet. Kind of like the little boy who checked under his bed. He had just heard the preacher talk about the fact how we were made out of dust of the earth. He checked under his bed, and he went to holler and scream, and his mother ran in and said, "What is it?" He said, "Mama, I looked under my bed, and somebody is either coming or going." So, made from dust and returned to dust.

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• He had plenty of it there. Well, you know, in your mind, everything is magnified. And this is exactly what these men are doing. They're full of fear and they're magnifying their enemies. And they said, "We were in our sight as grasshoppers." That's which we were compared to. "And so were we in their sight."

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• Now, let me ask you a question. How did they know what the enemy was thinking? How did they know the perspective of these people? They did not. And they could not. And by the way, if you remember Joshua chapter 2, when you get to Rahab, she said, "When we heard what the Lord God did in Egypt and how He dried up the Red Sea, all of our hearts sank and we melted. We were afraid."

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• They were more fearful than these spies. And yet the truth of the matter is, what they're saying is, "These people are so huge. They are so big. They are so strong. We are so little. We are like grasshoppers. They can just step on us and smash us, and that's all there is to it, and we'd be gone." So they're magnifying their weakness and their position, and they're magnifying the strength of the enemy. Listen carefully. Fear destroys and devastates. Fear destroys and devastates. Now let me try to summarize chapter thirteen for you. Here is what these ten faithless and fearful spies were actually saying. They represented the land as unconquerable. They were saying in essence that to attempt conquering this land was extremely impractical. We can't succeed.

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• Not with 600,000 warriors. Not with the power of God. It's impossible. It is impractical. The people there are strong. The men are of a great stature. They're stronger than we are. Their cities are impregnable fortresses. There's no way that we can conquer those cities. They're walled up and they're very great. And there we saw the giants. Oh man, here are the giants. Here were men of prodigious size and muscular.

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• And where are his grasshoppers? In all probability, they were trembling as they were talking about the sons of Anak. Fear terrifies and fear magnifies and fear incapacitates. Every one of us has heard and has used the expression frozen with fear. A person who is fearful can't act. They're incapacitated. Here's what is happening in Numbers chapter 13. Fear is vilifying God. Fear is calling God a liar. Fear is saying that God is not omnipotent, that God is unable to keep His promise and fulfill His Word. Fear denies not only the promise of God, but the power of God. So fear then forces someone not to act, but to react. Fear forces us to turn from God's way to our way.

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• Let me say this again. When a person is afraid, instead of obeying God, what does he do? Well, I've got to protect myself. I've got to look out for myself. I've got to do what I think best under the circumstances. Really? So when you do what you think best in reality, you're disobeying God instead of doing what He tells you to do. Wow. Well, it's kind of like the old adage that we have seen in the political realm. You've seen the sign during the tenure of Obama, someone put, "Well, how did that hoping and changing thing work out for you?" Well, it didn't work out too good, did it? Well, this is the same thing. How does fear work out for these people? How did unbelief work out for these people? It didn't work out too good. Why? God killed them all in the wilderness.

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• I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4. Here is an assessment of this situation. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. Hebrews 4. And we are being warned here. He says, "...let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into this rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For I spake in a certain place on the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, watch, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief."

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• They didn't get into Canaan land. God killed them all for their sin and their rebellion and their wickedness. It's just that simple. So it didn't work out too good for them. They were looking out for themselves. I want to ask you a question. Suppose David had taken the same attitude toward Goliath. What if he had looked at that big old rascal, nearly 9 feet tall? And you've got to remember, David was probably around 15 years old when this fight took place. Even Saul said, "You can't fight this man. You're but a youth. And he's a man of war from his youth." David was a shepherd.

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• He was not a warrior. And David could have stood there and said, "Hmm, look at that big knocker. I don't think I want to tangle with him. Look at all the armor he has. Look at the sword. I'm not trained in warfare." You know, those things never even entered into David's mind. All of the other Israelites were afraid of Goliath, but not David. You know why? Because here's what David told Saul.

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• "When I was keeping my father's sheep, a lion came up, and I killed the lion. And a bear came up, and I killed the bear. And God will enable me to kill this uncircumcised Philistine." And when that Philistine began to taunt David, and he said, "Come to me and I'll give your flesh to the fowls of the air," David said, as he picked up those stones and ran toward him, David said, "God will deliver you into my hand and I'll take your head from you this day." Now why was David unafraid? The answer is because he knew the power of God. He knew that God was able. He was unable, but God was able.

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• I want you to turn to two passages. The first one is Isaiah 12. And the second one is Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Let's go to Isaiah 12 first. This is one of my favorite passages. I've quoted it a number of times in my life. If you look at Isaiah 12 and verse 2, the scripture says this, "Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid.

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• For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation."

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• Now, I want you to look at that. "Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid." When our oldest daughter was about two, going on three, she was afraid of the dark. I taught her this verse. She memorized it. Sometimes we would wake up during the night and she would be walking to the bathroom or going to the kitchen and you could hear her as she went down to the hall or went to the light switch. She would say over and over, "I will trust and not be afraid. I will trust and not be afraid" until she got to that light switch. Well, it's good to trust and not be afraid even when the light is on, not just when it's off.

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• So let me show you. Look in Psalm 27. Look what David said. Psalm 27, beginning there with verse 1. Here's a man that understood faith. He said in Psalm 27, verse 1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?" In other words, if 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?"

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• "When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell." Watch what he says now, "'Though an army 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.'" David said, I'm not going to be afraid even if a host encamps against me. Even if war breaks out, I'm not going to fear because the Lord is a strength of my life.

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• Now, I want you to turn to 2 Timothy 1. I want to make just two quick applications, but I want you to see this passage. I would encourage you, if you have not memorized this verse, to memorize it. 2 Timothy chapter 1, and before I give you the verse, let me tell you something. If you are fearful, you must remember this, your fear does not come from God. It may come from the flesh. It may come from the world. It may come from the devil, but it does not come from God. Look in 2 Timothy 1 verse 7. Here it is. "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." God does not give us a spirit of fear. He gives us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Faith quietens the heart. Faith rests in God's promise and in God's power. Fear causes consternation and heartache. One other thing. Think about this.

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• will allow you to see the fruits of victory, but will stop you from possessing and enjoying the fruits of victory. These people saw the pomegranates. They saw the grapes. Undoubtedly, some of them probably tasted what was brought. But none of them got into Canaan land. They saw, but they did not possess. Fear will keep you from receiving those blessings that God has for you. We must learn not to fear, but to exercise faith and obey God regardless of the consequences. Faith cannot be separated from the promises of God or the power of God. If you believe one, you must necessarily believe the other. Let's pray.

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• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to You this day. We thank You for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your grace, for Your mercy. And we do pray, Father, that You would make us men and women of faith. May we not fear. May we understand that Thou hast not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And may we understand that regardless of the situation and regardless of the circumstance, we must be obedient unto Thee and trust Thee.

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• Help us to do that. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T12:24:22Z