Escaping the Fear of Man

- CALL TO WORSHIP -

Let us rise and worship the Triune God.

ADORATION

Minister: Bless the Lord who forgives our sins. Congregation: His mercy endures forever. Amen.

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 106:47–48 “Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the Gentiles, To give thanks to Your holy name, To triumph in Your praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!” Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, you have saved us from our sin so that we, your children, might no longer settle for the vain pleasures of sin, but finding your sweet promises of redemption ever near, overcome temptation—especially when life brings trials beyond our strength.

Lord, we are heirs of great and precious promises from You, and by faith in those promises, we come now to worship You.

We thank You that through faith, we are able to enjoy You in ways that confound the wisdom of the world. We thank You that in Your Word, we see Your face. We thank You that the riches of Your grace are inexhaustible. You will never leave us be.

Grant us the imagination to bring Your glory to bear in all that we do.

Almighty God, we worship you now through Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with You, and the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end, and Amen.

HYMN

Come, Thou Almighty King (331)

- CONFESSION -

Please sit.

EXHORTATION (Samuel Davidson)

Our great sin consists in forgetting our God, who saved us from sin and death. But this kind of forgetting consists of more than just a lapse in memory. It indicates rather a breach of covenant or a failure to uphold one's duties. Our fathers were instructed by Moses to remember God's works and His words. To not remember God meant that you were going back on everything that you had, everything you were. After all, the Israelites were not a people strong and mighty. They were slaves in Egypt. How come they were enjoying the fruit of the land flowing with milk and honey? God saved them. Remember that you too “were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12-13). If you do not understand how you got the wealth you now possess in Christ, you will not understand what you are to do with it. So, here’s a twofold exhortation.

Firstly, in each of your families, God moved at His time and saved you from your sins, bringing out you and yours into the kingdom of God. Do not forget Patrick, Boniface, Luther, Whitefield, Judson, Livingstone. Do not forget how by the imperishable blood of the Lamb, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers (1 Peter 1:18). Remember that you are a repentant pagan. God’s abundant grace and not good manners has kept your family in the faith. God’s abundant grace and not the might of your hand has built the nation you live in. Secondly, do not forget the kindnesses He showed you individually. When by prayer and in His mercy He extended your life beyond what you expected. When He delivered you from some great and sore temptation. Do not forget the discipline and chastisement that He brought on you by which you were taught to love Him. Do not forget the way in which God first brought home to you the truth that Jesus hanging on the tree, was bleeding for you. Do not forget that Jesus has paid for every last bit of your sins: the ones you formerly lived in, the ones you committed this morning and any that you may commit in the future. And as you do the work of rebuilding Christendom, be encouraged in these remembrances, giving thanks to God for all these things.

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins so let us prepare to do so as we sing..

PSALM

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God (704)

CONFESSION OF SIN

So, as you are able please kneel in confession before God

Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”

You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we confess our individual sins to you now, Selah.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

Please rise for the assurance of pardon! Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Minister: Your sins are forgiven through Christ. Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONFESSION OF FAITH

Having confessed our sins, let us now confess our common faith in the words of the apostles’ creed, saying, Minister: Christian, what do you believe? Congregation: I believe in God the Father Almighty,Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, Hisonly begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceivedby the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary.He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,died, and was buried. He descended into Hades.On the third day He rose again from the dead,ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right handof God the Father Almighty; from thence He willcome to judge the living and the dead. I believein the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, thecommunion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, theresurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Responsive Reading

Minister: The fear of the Lord is clean and pure. Congregation: The fear of the Lord endures forever. Minister: The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, Congregation: Whether or not they are small or great. Minister: The fear of God is our foundation for worship. Congregation: Amen.

HYMN

And Can It Be?....................................................447

- CONSECRATION -

SCRIPTURE READING

(Ty Knight) Job 1:6-12, Mark 1:21-34 Reader: The Word of the Lord. Congregation: Thanks be to God!

Baptisms and Memberships

HYMN

Please sit. Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus (412)

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

(Ty Knight) Opening: Isaiah 61:1-2 Thanksgiving: Isaiah 61:10 Petitions: Isaiah 61:11

HYMN

Please stand. Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun....................137

SERMON

Introduction

Unrepentant cowardice will keep some people from the kingdom of God (Revelation 21:8). Imagine a coward. You may be picturing a timid skinny man with knees shaking and teeth rattling and may feel a sense of disdain for him. But that kind of cowardice and terror is usually one of the more innocent forms of it. Diabolical cowardice is more subtle than that. Being afraid of man when you ought not to be is a result of not fearing God. The one you fear is the one you worship, and if you are not worshipping God, you will be fearing man. Fear of man is one of the more pernicious temptations ever to attend Christians in this our earthly sojourn. Each day presents us with an opportunity to either worship God or to worship a created thing. Because men are made in the image of God, the worship of created things eventually becomes the worship or fear of man. Just like idolatry ultimately is the worship of self, so also the fear of man is a morbid, out-of-shape desire for self-preservation. So it’s either fear of God or fear of man.

Our text today presents us with a case study into both as we shall see. In 1 Samuel 23 we have an example in King David and his men of the shadow of our Lord Jesus in His fortitude and fear of God. In everyone else involved we see a bad case of fear of man. I don’t care what your situation is today in life, within this next week you will be tempted to fear man instead of God. When that happens, you must remember to fear God, depending on the resources He has given you to help you do that. So, consider with me the background and summary of the text.

Background and Summary of the Text

David is on the run from King Saul and hiding in the forest of Hereth. Saul has just killed 85 priests and Ahimelech, the High Priest. His son, Abiathar alone had escaped and joined king David. Ahimelech and the priests at Nob were unaware that David was a fugitive when they sheltered him and that led to them being innocently slain at the hands of the wicked king Saul.

Some of the men who were with David report to him of the attack of the Philistines against Keilah and their plundering of their grain (v1). David, in his zeal for the Lord, asks Him if he may go and attack the Philistines. God commands him to do so and save Keilah (v2). David’s men, understandably register a disagreement with him on this saying that the feel unsafe in this forest: how much more if they show up where the battle is taking place, where the eyes of Israel presently are (v3). David does not insist on his way but showing his men how they must deal with their fears, goes back again to God in prayer. This time when the Lord answers in the affirmative, God adds a promise saying, “I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.” The delivering into one’s hand is a key phrase in this whole chapter (v4). God upheld His promise and the David struck them heavily, plundering their livestock even (a net positive) and delivered the city of Keilah (v5). As a very important parenthetical note, we are told here that Abiathar, the son of the high priest, had brought with him an ephod and met with David at the city of Keilah. This ephod was a mini-ark of the covenant that the priest could use to speak with God using the Urim and the Thummim (v6).

Clearly, the news of David and his men being at Keilah had spread abroad. Not just Abiathar but even King Saul had heard of it. King Saul, deluded himself by saying that God had delivered David into his hand, having brought him into a city with heavy gates and bars. Now, Keilah was a border city near Philistia. Therefore it was a fortified city (v7). Saul gathered all his army to go and besiege David in Keilah. One wonders why he didn’t do that when the Philistines had attacked (v8).

Saul was technically correct - God had brought David into a fortified city but not to be delivered into the hand of Saul. By God’s providence, David had people who would send him news of the king Saul. On learning about Saul’s plan to lay hold of David, he asked God through the ephod if the people of Keilah would hand David over to Saul when he comes. God confirmed that this was so. Hearing this, David and his men fled. And hearing that, Saul retreated as well. This is the first part of the chapter (v9-13). So, Saul never came to Keilah and the people never gave David up. David’s prayer was a prayer of future conditionals - possible future outcomes that never came to pass. Thus, God delivered David from the hand of Saul and delivered the people of Keilah from the temptation to hand David over. How many times does the Lord not “lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil,” even the fear of man, by not allowing us to fall into such a circumstance. How many times each day does God remember our frame and does not let us be tempted beyond what we are able to bear? Yes, indeed, the people of Keilah would have given David up for fear of the tyrannical king Saul, having heard of his bloodthirsty wrath being poured out on the citizens of Nob for sheltering David. God kept his people from such sin.

David and his faithful stayed in a forest in the wilderness of Ziph while Saul relentlessly sought him but the Lord did not give David into his hands (v14-15). But even though Saul couldn’t find David, Jonathan, Saul’s son found him just fine. God’s providence. Instead of being delivered into the hand of Saul, David’s hand was strengthened in the Lord by Jonathan (v16). Faithful Jonathan encouraged David not to be afraid reminding him of God’s promise to establish him as king. He had indeed acted more like a king than Saul in saving Keilah. Jonathan further said that he would gladly be his second-in-command and that Saul too knew of the glory God has bestowed on David (v17). They made another covenant with each other before Jonathan went his own way. This was the last recorded time that Jonathan met David before Jonathan’s death in battle in 1 Samuel 31 (v18).

While the people in Keilah only would have delivered David to Saul, the Ziphites, go a step further and act treacherously against David by telling Saul his location (v19-20). Saul uses very pious sounding language to bless the Ziphites in the name of the Lord (which he takes in vain) and implores them to come back to him with more surety and certainty (v21-23).

Now David’s men were in the Wilderness of Maon when their scouts reported that Saul was coming so he went down to a rocky stronghold (v24-25). David was on one side of the stronghold and Saul was on the other side and he was closing in on him (v26). Just then, a messenger came and reported to Saul that the Philistines had invaded (v27). Saul, who had not attacked the Philistines in their previous attack, decided this time to go after them. God’s providence. So that stronghold was named Rock of Division (v28). So, David went to the strongholds of En Gedi.

Two Christian Princes

Throughout this danger-filled, high-pressure situation, David exhibits incredible fear of God and God’s faithfulness for David is clearly seen. It is zeal for God, which David has been consistently displaying since his encounter with the giant, that drives him to ask God’s blessing in attacking the Philistines, even when his life is in danger and also of those 600 men who were with him. God’s glory matters more than David’s life and even of all the men in Israel. This is fearing God. David is truly a man after God’s heart. But do not think that his attack on the Philistines is fool-hardy. David seeks God’s direction at every step. And God’s promise of protection seals his every action by faith. What is more? David recognizes that he needs to approach the infinitely holy God with trepidation through the priestly mediation he has established. The only surviving priest of the present dispensation flees to David and brings the ephod. God providentially gives David a favourable outcome each time because David pleases God.

On the other hand, king Saul makes loud pronunciations in the name of the Lord but by his own hand he has murdered all the priesthood. He has divested himself of any mediated access to the holy God of heaven and yet maintains a facade of godliness in his tyrannical genocidal pursuit of David. As a result, Saul’s actions are erratic, irregular and ineffectual. It is clear to everyone, including Saul, what the Lord’s will is and yet Saul is unwilling to accept it. Saul too fears man instead of God (1 Samuel 15:24). Both David and Saul are Christian princes, yes, both are kings in Israel, yet one is a covenant keeper and the other is a covenant breaker. It is not sufficient in battle to name the name of Christ and carry a cross as our banner. We must also fight fiercely in humble reliance upon the resources God has given us. We are in a long, irreconcilable war with the world and the true children of God are revealed by the their allegiance to and reliance on the true and greater high priest and only mediator between God and men, our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer in the name of Jesus, relying on his promises, confessing our sin before Him, this is the way to walk in the fear of God.

Against the Fear of Man

How then shall we live? Be not afraid of men. Proverbs 29:25 says that “the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.” The inhabitants of Keilah would have fallen into a snare. The inhabitants of Ziph did fall into a snare. They saw what Saul had done to the city of Nob and did not want a similar outcome for themselves. The prophecy of God concerning David’s kingship notwithstanding, they cowered in fear before the real king Saul. David may be some future spiritual figurative king but right now, in this country, Saul was the one in charge. Let Saul’s will be done, they said. They walked in cowardice. When you see the wicked persecute the innocent, you too will be tempted to cowardice. But do not give in. If there is injustice at your workplace, do not stay silent for fear of losing your job, if you do not speak up against slander and lies for fear of being labelled as one or another type of Christian, if you do not associate with one or another Christian because being found in their presence will be an embarrassment to you, you are fearing men rather than God. I know of a man who has been imprisoned for the sake of preaching the Gospel in India, who has been dismissed from his job at a Christian institution because it would be bad reputation for the Christian institution to have someone like him on the rolls. But God calls us not to a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore we are not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of his prisoners, and those who are maligned for his sake, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God! (2 Timothy 1:7-8)

“He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.” (Proverbs 17:15) “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.” (Exodus 23:2)

The only way you may do this is to walk in the presence of the Priest of God given for your redemption. The most fear inducing thing in the world ought to be the wrath of God for your sin. The guilt and horror caused by the knowledge of this wrath is at the root of all rebellion and sin. But for you, O Christian, Christ has died and has risen again. You must not fear man for you need not fear punishment from God. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall the Lord’s elect condemn? There is not therefore no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. God is with you and all the troubles and trials and wildernesses you may find yourselves in are hand crafted circumstances given to you by God in His providence for you to experience His protection and care as you faithfully walk with him. Like David, therefore, who also trusted in this Christ, the criterion for action for you must not be primarily, considerations about your safety or anyone else’s safety but faithfulness to God. To love your life is to lose it but to lose your life for the Lord and His Gospel is to gain it forever. Safety is not the absence of danger but the covenant presence of God.

PRAYER

Ending with The Lord’s Prayer…

OFFERTORY

Please stand. He Which Soweth Sparingly.................................713

- COMMUNION -

Please sit.

John 14:19 ““A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.” “Hope that is seen is not hope” (Romans 8:24, NKJV) So, hope includes unseen, invisible realities. God too is invisible (1 Timothy 1:17) and He is the God of hope, hope for that which is unseen.

Faith also “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” (Hebrews 11:1) So, faith presses forward beyond what is immediately seen and tastes some of the forthcoming unseen promised realities. The Invisible God became man, became visible and manifested hope. He lived among us, suffered for us, died and on the third day rose again, making peace between heaven and earth. He now sits enthroned in heaven above, again hidden from our sight.

We do not now see Jesus as we see each other. But we do see Him by the eyes of faith. In this earthly sojourn, we shall live from faith to faith and so also from hope to hope in believing. Even as our outer frame wastes away, our inner man is renewed day by day as we bear our light afflictions, awaiting awesome glory, looking to invisible eternal things. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

All this is done by the power of the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to glorify Christ (John 16:14). This fellowship of the Holy Spirit is better than even the one that the apostles enjoyed at the Last Supper! It was better that He should go away and that we should possess the fullness of the Spirit than that He should stay and we do not possess the fullness of the Spirit. (John 16:7) Yet, better than both is to be both body and spirit with Christ, where faith has turned to sight. And for that we pray, awaiting the second advent, even as we celebrate the first.

As you partake of this feast, do you really believe that you are in a more elevated position today than were the apostles in the days when the incarnate Christ traveled in Galilee? The seeds of eternal glory are germinating within you now. Know that the works that you do today are not in vain, even if the fruit of them may be hidden for a time. When Christ appears in glory, you too shall appear with Him dressed in perfect righteousness. Let that sure future reality drive you to obedience today, especially when you do not see the end of your assigned tasks. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

MEDITATION

THE BREAD

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it:

Ah, Jesus Lord, Thy Love to Me..........................513a And when Jesus had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

THE WINE

Ah, Jesus Lord, Thy Love to Me..........................513b

After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

- COMMISSION -

Please stand.

CLOSING DOXOLOGY

The congregation may raise hands.

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. Amen.