Go with me in your Bible to Romans chapter eight. We’re going to keep going through. The title of the message, very important message this morning is, “No Longer Slave To Fear” (Romans 8:15a). If you think, “Whoa, that might hit home with some people,” that’s the prayer we’re going to really need to be cognitive of what the verses are saying, very carefully, especially when we get over into 1 John. I’m going to show you some things that operate in what we call the analogous nature of Scripture. What that means is, if you let it, the Bible will actually teach you the Bible. It’s the best teacher, because it’s the Holy Spirit doing it. And so hopefully you’ll catch that.
I’m going to start in verse 14 of Romans chapter eight, Romans 8:14. There’s no way to keep going back in the full review, but just keep this in mind, Romans eight, the theme of the chapter is assurance. It’s the assurance for the true believer that Jesus is going to finish what He started, and thus there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that’s chapter eight, verse one down to verse 14. “Though for all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” This is not prescriptive. This is descriptive. It means that if you are in Christ, the Spirit is in you, and He is leading you. Now, do you perfectly submit? No, you don’t. And so, we covered that last week. But this is talking about a real believer. The next verse, the next first, the next verse, the first part is our text for this morning. Romans 8:15a says, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear…” This “you” is talking about Christians. How do we know? Well, because the previous verse said, “All that are led by the Spirit of God,” these are “The sons of God”. “For you,” it’s talking about real believers. “You did not receive the spirit of slavery.” You want to remember that word “to fall back into fear.” What does this mean? This means that a Christian receives another spirit, with the Holy Spirit, and that they are not to walk in that kind of fear anymore. But what we’re going to see is that Christians still struggle with it. They still stumble in it. They still battle it. And every other fear that you have is simply a derivative of the fear of eternal death and damnation.
This is true for two categories of people, those that are unbelievers and those who are believers. One has legitimate fear. The unbeliever does. A believer has an illegitimate fear. We’re going to take those two in order. And so, if you’re here and you say, “You know, I do, I battle with fear,” well here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go to the root of it. We’re going to get a hold of it. And by the Spirit’s power, you can see it pulled up in your life. It doesn’t mean it’s a one and done, but you can start the battle and wage the war effectively from here going forward. Let me say it to you this way, every time sin comes into the picture, fear comes with it. Okay? The root of every single fear that mankind has ever experienced has ultimately been sin. The very first sin led to the very first fear. Here, let’s see this. Okay, I can’t cover it exhaustively in the Old Testament. We don’t have time. Genesis 3:9-10. You remember what happened? Right? The devil tempted Adam and Eve. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their eyes were opened. They saw that they were naked. And their tempter became their accuser told them they were naked. And so, what did they do? They hid. And so here we see verse nine, “But the Lord called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ Now any question that God ever asks is a rhetorical question. Okay, God’s not trying. “Where did Adam go? No, no, I hope I don’t step on him.” God knew where he was, but he’s causing the man to come to come clean and watch what Adam says. He said, “‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.’” Why? Because of sin. Immediately his conscience was awakened, and he knew that he had sinned. Now this is true for every human being who’s ever been born, if they have the mental capacity to understand even a semblance of reality, there’s an awareness in their mind that something is broken. Now people will act like that’s not true. They’ll put up facades. They’ll act casual. You know, YOLO, you only live once, right? No big deal. You know, no fear. Those “No Fear” stickers on those trucks. If that’s your truck, I love you, but I bet if you had a tire blow out and that thing starts rolling, fear, you see? And at the root of that is not going to be someone scoffing, but someone actually being held accountable. And so, we’ll take the unbeliever first. There’s only going to be two points, the unbeliever and then the believer.
So here’s
1. The Unbeliever
Now this is going to be someone who is not regenerated by the Spirit. They have not been saved. By faith by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, they are they are against God. They are God’s enemy, and they’ve rejected His Son, at least thus far. Is this true for them? Are they actually afraid? They are actually afraid because in their conscience, they are aware something is wrong. Now again, that doesn’t mean every unbeliever is going to admit that. In fact, they’ll often deny it, like, “I’m not afraid of judgment.” I had a man tell me in New Orleans one time, he says, “Well, if I stand before God of judgment, I’m grab Him by His shirt. I’ve got some questions!” Like, buddy, you won’t be doing any grabbing. You won’t be doing anything but bowing in presence of the God of the universe. You’re kidding me? But there is an awareness in every single human being, even if they have denied it so long they can no longer feel it. We saw this about when we were in Romans one, about nine years ago. This is look at Romans 1:18-22, “For the wrath (the wrath, that’s the punishment and the fury, the wrath) of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Specifically, what? Here’s the thing, “Who by their unrighteousness (they do what? they) suppress the truth.” Now we’ll see what the truth is, but I want you to get a picture of this. When it says they “suppress the truth”, it’s almost as though that the truth is pushing up, becoming evident, and they push it back down. It’s an unwillingness to accept the truth. The truth about what? The truth about God. They have it, but they don’t want it, so they suppress it. Now we know that’s what it’s talking about, because it continues. Look at Verse 19, “For what can be known.” Known what? Known about who? Known about God. Now, does that mean something exhaustive about God? No. Does that mean details about God? No. But what is it referring to? The fact that there is a God and He made the creation. It’s called “natural revelation”. Every single person knows this. That’s why little kids will always confess quickly, “Yeah, there’s a Creator,” because they’re smarter than older people who’ve figured out how to keep suppressing that truth till they no longer can feel it. “What can be known about God is plain to them (because, what?) because God has shown it to them.” Shown it to them, shown it to who? Shown it to everybody. Every single person God shows by His creation that He is and thus that He’s worthy to be worshiped. Okay, how do we know this? Well, we keep reading. Keep reading forward. Look at verse 20, talking about God, “His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and His divine nature.” In other words, that He’s powerful and He is God by nature “Have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.” That’s the earth. “So that they (this is unbelievers) are without excuse.” No one, no one on the Day of Judgment will be able to stand in front of God and say this, “I didn’t know.” Yeah, you did, and it’s like, “Well, what if nobody tells them?” Doesn’t matter. They’re still accountable for the fact that they had God revealed to them through the creation, right? I mean, think about how silly it is this lie of evolution that is propagated as a theory and usually as a fact. I don’t know if any of you parked a car out there. You probably drove here. Maybe you walked. Who would walk out to one of those cars and go, “Hey, by the way, this thing just materialized.” Really? How did it materialize? Well, there was this huge explosion, and out came this Tesla, right now, maybe a Chevy? No, it’s not that funny. There was that excuse. What does that mean? That means the conscience and every human being can at least say this, “Yes, there’s a Creator.” Intricate design is never the result of anything explosive or destructive. He goes on, he says, “For although they knew God (doesn’t mean they knew Him personally. It means they know He exists, though they knew God) they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became (look, what do they do?) futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Why does it say their “foolish hearts”? Because the fool, the Bible says 14, one Psalm, “The fool has said in his heart (what?), ‘There is no God.’” “There is no God.” So, if you’re here and you say you’re an atheist, number one, I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you at all, because your conscience still knows there’s a God, but the Bible is calling you a fool. Why? Because only a fool would believe that this came into being by nothing. You would never posit that in any other way. The problem is, if you admit that there’s a God now you have to admit that you are thus accountable to Him, and there’s a conscience in you that knows something’s broken. And the problem is not with God, it’s with us. So, the truth is suppressed. It’s pushed down. Now verse 22 goes on and says, “Claiming to be wise, (there it is) they became fools.” They say there is no God. Go down to verse 32, Romans 1:32, “Though they know God’s (requirement, look, they know God’s) righteous decree.” How? Because the law is written on every human heart. People know instinctively when they sin. People know instinctively that to murder another human being is wrong. People know instinctively that to steal something that’s not theirs is wrong. They know it and thus listen, fear comes in with it. It always follows sin. Fear follows it and they live with this looming fear. They knew “God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to (what? they deserve to) die. They not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them.” So here it is. Here’s the knowledge of impending doom. That’s all it is. And I don’t know if you’re a Christian, that when you if you can remember when you became a Christian, I can remember the day. My wife can’t. She was raised in a Christian home, and she does not remember the exact day where she found herself believing and trusting Christ. I do. It was in September of 1986 I remember the day, and I remember that the impending doom feeling that I had even up to 19 years old. I was definitely scared of death. I knew I’d done wrong. I knew what I was doing was sin, and I mean, I was doing it as best I could. I was trying to do it at a professional level. Some people, right? They experiment with drugs. I was into full scale research. What’s the doom they’re thinking of? Is it a bad ending? Is it just a bad death, or is it eternal? The Bible is very clear. We are aware, as human beings that there is a God, and therefore there is a Judge who will reign in justice, and it’s inevitable, even if it’s not in your timing.
What is the ultimate fear? The ultimate fear is to stand before Jesus Christ without your sins being washed. This is the picture of it, Revelation 20:11-15, says. “Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who was seated on it. From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them (this is Jesus). And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the book (watch) according to what they had done.” Now, anybody that gets judged according to what they have done is going to be found lacking, going to be found guilty. A Christian has the benefit of getting what? Getting judged according to what Christ has done. That’s the distinction. He goes on verse 13, “And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” This, “anyone” right here, is actually everyone, because the church is already with Christ. They’ve been with Him for over 1000 years during the millennial reign. If you are to stand before God and give an account based upon what you have done, you’re going to be found guilty. You’ve broken the law. And if you break one, you broke it all. And this is the impending doom. This is where the fear comes from. An unbeliever. What is the solution for an unbeliever? Well, it’s very simple. It is to become a believer. It is to trust Jesus Christ as the only refuge from the consequence of your sin. That’s the good news of the gospel. He goes to the cross after a sinlessly perfect life, and He dies in someone else’s place, ours, so that He takes our sin and the punishment thereof, thus we get His righteousness and the glory thereof.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 makes it very clear and concise. It says this, “For I delivered to you, as of first importance (look, how important this is) what I also received, that Christ, (He did what?) He died for our sins.” Very important statement here, “In accordance with the Scriptures.” You might say, “Well, I don’t believe in the Bible.” Doesn’t matter. Still true. It literally doesn’t matter. You say, “You’re never going to convince me that the Bible is true.” You’re right. I can’t do that. Only the Holy Spirit can. In fact, I’m never going to try. I love what Spurgeon said, “You don’t have to defend the Bible. The Bible’s like a lion. And if you have a lion, all you got to do is take it off the leash. It’ll defend itself.” Bible’s well able to take care of itself, and the Spirit’s well able to do the work. So, if you’re here and you don’t believe the Scripture yet, keep listening. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. That’s why you’re exposed to so much text. When we do this, he goes on, not only did He die according to the scripture, verse four, but that He was what? “That He was buried.” Right? Truly dead, “And He was raised on the third day (there it is, again) in accordance with the Scriptures.” An absolute miracle. When a human being hears the Scripture and finds themselves recognizing that’s the Word of God, it’s a miracle. So, if you’re here and you know the Bible’s the Word of God, and you truly mean that I’m telling you, the Holy Spirit’s done a miracle in you. Your mom and dad didn’t convince you of that. That’s not possible. The Bible is a spiritual book written by a Spirit to spirits inside of people. There’s no other way you comprehend that. But this is the escape. This is the refuge. John 3:36, Jesus says, “‘Whoever (or actually, it’s John writing about Him) whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life and obey the Son (means what? believe in Him, what we just read) but the wrath of God remains on him.’” You see the problem? The only escape from the wrath is through the shed blood of Jesus. Okay? That part’s easy in the sense that it’s easy to comprehend, right? That’s the believers dealing with fear. That’s the spirit they walk in. It’s a dread of impending doom. It’s the fear of eternal, death and punishment.
But what about
2. The Believer
Unbeliever? We got it. What about a believer? Okay, I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and I’m going to make probably an educated guess. Most of you here are true Christians. I don’t know what goats would have to do here. I don’t know what you do. There’s not a lot of goat fodder around, right? There’s not. We’re not here to feed goats. We’re here to feed sheep. We’re not here to entertain goats. We’re here to feed sheep. So, if you’re here, there’s something about your spirit that’s hungry for the Word of God, because that’s all I do. I get up here and yell at you out of the Bible, right? Maybe some of you are waiting. “When is the drum solo coming?” Never. By the way, if you come on Easter, there will not be an Easter egg hunt. There will not be a paper mache tomb with somebody popping out of it with smoke. You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to do what we always do. We’re going to celebrate the resurrection of Christ in light of the gospel, and we’re going to study the Word. So, if you’re here for that, I got to feel like you’re a believer, and this pertains to you, because believers can still struggle and stumble with a sense of fear and impending doom. And it’s like, wait a minute, I see that in 8:15a of Romans. Why? Let me show you, why, and let me show you the solution. Okay?
Jesus is speaking about the believer in John 5:24, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me (watch) has eternal life.” That’s a Christian, that’s a believer. They’ve been born of the Spirit. They’re never going to die physically. Yes, then they get a glorified body. But look, has “‘Eternal life, and he does not come into (what?) into judgment, but is passed from death to life.’” In other words, you won’t stand at the Great White Throne and give an account for what you’ve done. You’ll give an account at the Bema Seat, and that’s in regards for rewards. That has nothing to do with the White Throne. You don’t come into judgment. So, if that’s the deal, then why would the fear be there? Well, let me double down on what Jesus said. Here look at Hebrews 2:14-15. Hebrews chapter two. Now this is going to talk about Jesus and His people. It says this, “Since, therefore the children.” That’s really mankind, but it’s really specific here. It’s talking about those who would come to Christ throughout history, “Since (we, you and I, we what?) we share in flesh and blood.” Right? In other words, we’re material. We share in flesh and blood. “He (this is Jesus Himself) likewise, He partook of the same things.” What is that talking about? It’s talking about His virgin birth. It’s talking about Him becoming a man, truly God and truly man, fully man, fully God, the hypostatic union. There’s your $3 word you can impress your friends at parties. “He became flesh and blood.” To do what? To be our new head, to be our new representative, the second Adam, or the last Adam, “So that (what? that) through death (His death) He might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil.” In other words, He ended his kingdom, Satan, sin, death, hell and the grave. He’s conquered all of that, and, as a consequence, He delivers us. Look at the next verse, “And deliver all those who through (watch) fear of (what?) death were subject to (what?) lifelong slavery.” Does that sound like Romans 8:15a? Yes, that’s a five. Sometimes I write it and it comes out in tongues, yeah, to “Deliver subject to lifelong slavery.” What does that mean? It’s exactly what I told you. It’s the looming notion and knowledge that you’re going to have to give an account to the Judge one day. Friends, like I tell you this, nobody gets away with anything. Nobody gets away with anything. Not one sin is going to go unpunished. It will either go unpunished. It’ll either go punished on Jesus Christ, or you’ll pay for it yourself. And we all know it, even if you’ve suppressed that truth for so long that you’re sitting in this church and you’re not feeling it, it doesn’t matter. It’s still true. And you’re being told your future, you’re being told a way of escape.
But for the believer, if this is the case, then why they? Why the lack of assurance? Why the trembling? Why the fearfulness? Why the drawing back from God, instead of always just running before His throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need? Why is that? It’s a very clear problem. I’m going to show you what the problem is, and you’ll see in it the solution.
So here we go. We’re going to go to 1 John 3:18-21. Now, there’s not many verses that we’re going to cover in three and four, but you have to get the language right, and you have to hear the argument. Oh, please don’t miss this, “Little children.” Okay, who is that? That’s he’s speaking to Christians. Okay, “Let us not love.” So, he’s going to operate in the negative, very rabbitical way of doing it. “Let us not love”, there’s our subject. “Let us not love.” How? “In word or talk.” Okay, let’s pause. What does he mean? What does he mean? I’ve been I’ve been walking with the Lord for 40 years. I’ve been in church the entire time, from the day I got saved in a church, a little church in Axtell, Texas, and I’ve been in church ever since. And I have heard, I don’t know how many 1000s of people say to each other and to me a very, “I love you.” And I just want to tell you, I don’t think I’m jaded and I don’t think I’m skeptical, but most of the time, when that said it’s actually just in word or talk, how do I know? Because when things get tough or people get their wills crossed, suddenly the love goes out the window. Ever seen that? Come on, you know it. You know, “I love you. I love you. Oh, we love you.” There’s nothing wrong with saying that. I’m not saying Sherman Bible, walk around, tell people what? Walk around tell people, “Yeah, actually, I hate you.” I’m simply saying there’s a lot of talk, word and talk. He says, “That’s not it,” “But rather in deed and in truth.” There it is, “in truth”, in other words, genuine love as defined by what? Not the culture, not your sentimentality, but defined by the Bible. “Greater love has no man than this,” Jesus said, “Than he would lay his life down for his friend.” So let me say it to you this way, the greatest love you’ll ever demonstrate is when you lay your life down for someone. Doesn’t mean going to the cross. Doesn’t mean even dying. It means giving up your best, sometimes for somebody else, or preferring someone else, or absorbing sometimes some sinfulness that they have, and not just trying to pound on them, but be being gracious and loving and approaching them, you know, and so maybe you got shorted, maybe you were wronged, maybe you need to forgive. It’s that kind of love. It’s self-sacrificial love. He’s saying, live that out now in that context that he just says this, don’t love like that, love like this. You got to get this. Here it is. It’s going to hinge right now. So genuine love versus just talking. Look at the next verse. “By this.” By what? By genuine love. By this genuine love, not in word or talk, but by this genuine love in deed and in truth. “By this we (that’s believers) shall know that we are of the truth.” That’s a synonymous term for being in Christ. “And reassure (there it is) our heart’s before Him.” Are you kidding me? No, this is what it says. This is what it means. This is how it applies to your life in Jesus Christ. This is the problem with a believer’s assurance is when they don’t walk in genuine love, they have doubts. That’s why love is the pinnacle of discipleship. Love is the pinnacle of maturity. Will you ever reach it perfectly? No, not in this earth, you will one day, but this is where the fear comes. Because here’s the thing, anything short of genuine love, actually, is sin. It is. You say, “Well, I don’t do all the things I used to do.” That’s great. That there’s that behavior. But God looks at the heart. He’s looking at the motivation of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s not just the outward, guys. Man looks at the outward all the time, and that’s not necessarily bad. That’s all we can see. But God looks at your heart, and He wants to see. Is there love motivating that? This is basic 1 Corinthians 13. Is it not? I could have all wisdom, all knowledge, understand all mysteries, I don’t have love, profits me nothing. Clanging cymbal and a noisy gong. If I give my body to be burned, give all my possessions away, but I don’t have love, it profits me nothing. This is what it’s talking about. And when we go against love, what happens is our assurance goes backwards, not forward, but when we walk in love, here’s what actually happens is, in some sense, we become shocked, like “I think that was love.” Some of you have experienced that in certain areas of your life. I gave up drugs for love. Good drugs, by the way, not this junk they have these days, I’m talking about good drugs. Like “I can’t believe a preacher talks like that.” So, what do you mean for love, out of love for Jesus and out of love for the Christians that were in community with me, I did that, and love healed my heart, and I didn’t need that anymore. Now I don’t want to sin against love, and so I can tell you this, I do all the drugs I want to. I don’t want to do any. That’s the thing. When the heart changes, that’s real assurance. And I look at that, and then there’s been so many things down line of that that, as they change, I’m shocked. I mean, I used to be a road rager, no kidding, shocker, huh? I mean, that was last month, no, but I watched love changed my life. I watched my heart start to have some compassion for that idiot in the fast lane. You can see, I’m a work in progress, but love shows up in the fruit of the Spirit. And I believe all the other eight they’re listing in Galatians are simply outflows of love. This is what happens, and we see it, and it’s life changing. We get reassurance. Now watch the next verse, “For whenever our heart condemns us.” It doesn’t say God’s heart, but our heart. Now, why would our heart condemn us? Because we start walking around and we’re doing the love talk and we’re saying the love words, but we’re not living the love deeds and truth. Now what happens? We’re convicted, and we tend to condemn ourselves. “But whenever our hearts condemn us, (look) God is (what? oh) greater than our heart, and He knows everything.” What does that mean He knows? He knows that that sin was put on the cross of Jesus Christ. He remembers that even when you don’t. And you may feel condemned, and you may feel the fear that accompanies the sin, but He has already atoned for that. The reason why you feel that drawing back is because you didn’t walk in love. Thus, the reassurance goes out the window. Listen to me, friends, when the reassurance goes out the window, the fear comes back in, even though it’s not legitimate. And when the fear comes back in, all the other fears down line in your life, they show up and they’re magnified. But when the chief fear is finally put to bed, friends, trust me, other fears fall in line. The fear of man goes away. That’s a beautiful freedom you can have. All those other fears, you say, what? A fear of heights? Well, that may just be that you don’t want to fall but I mean the true ones, the legitimate ones. And then look at verse 20. Yeah. Over that. That is verse 20. And then look at verse 21, “Beloved if our heart does not condemn us, (then what happens?) we have confidence before God.” Let’s run it back through. We’re going to kick back up to verse 18. Now that you see it, I want you to see it. I’m just going to read through it. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved for our heart does not condemn us (because why? Because we’re walking in love) we have confidence (and that’s just another word for “assurance”, we have confidence) before God.” This is beautiful. This is liberating. This is a life changing truth.
Let’s see if it’s reiterated, because it is in this exact same epistle. Look at 1 John 4:16-19. You’re going to see it from another angle. Again, this is called the analogous nature of Scripture. This is simply finding where the Bible teaches the Bible. That’s what it is. That’s the job of a teacher is to cut those things straight and see them fit together. 1 John 4:16-19. Still John. He’s the apostle of love, right? That’s his nickname. He says this. “So we (that’s believers) we have come to know and believe the love (what?) that God has for us.” This is first. This is the proto principle. This is the forwardness. You have to have this. This is the preunderstanding. “For we come to know and believe the love that God has for us.” Now we tell you all the time, “You are loved.” Some of you are starting to believe it. It’s not a slogan here. It’s the underlying bedrock of discipleship. You will never give away love you’ve not received. You can’t. You can’t give away what you don’t have. And I don’t mean he has that. He’ll love you more later. I mean but you trusting Him, you knowing it, and you knowing it through thick or thin. You knowing it through all your Romans seven, stumbling and stupidity. I’m talking to me. You still realize God loves me. I’ve come to know and to believe the love that God has for me. Have you now perfectly? No, no. But this is the topic, right here. This is the context. “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” There’s this word, right? There’s a remainingness, okay? Look at the next verse, this look familiar? “By this,” By this, by what? By understanding, by knowing and believing the love that God has for you, the remaining in that which is simply a statement of maturity because you’re doing it consistently, right? 2 Peter 1, you know the progression? Be very diligent at your faith. Add moral excellence. To moral excellence what? Knowledge. To knowledge? Self-control. Self-control? Steadfastness. Steadfastness to? Godliness. Godliness? To brotherly kindness. And brotherly kindness to what? Love. It’s the pinnacle of the process of discipleship. “By this is love perfected with us.” You say, “Wait a minute. I thought we weren’t going to be perfect.” The word is “teleos”. The word is translated here, “perfected”. It usually, and probably, arguably, should mean “matured”. The word “teleos” means mature or perfected to fruition, because you’re never going to meet anybody who’s loving perfectly. We will one day, but we don’t now, because we still have vestiges of sin in our members. “By this (by knowing and believing the love God has for us, by this, it is) perfected.” In other words, knowing God’s love for you is how it’s perfected in you. Are you seeing it? “So that we may have (what? Okay) confidence for (what? For that big job interview? Confidence) for the day of judgment because, as He is so also, are we in this world.” What is he talking about right here? Righteousness. We’ve been given His righteousness, therefore we have confidence against the day of judgment. And it’s “by this”, it’s we come to know and believe. Okay, let me go on to verse 18. We’ll run it backwards here in a moment. Verse 18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect (that’s teleos or mature) love (does what? it) casts out the fear.” What fear are we talking about? It casts out the fear of torment and judgment, of eternal damnation. That’s the context. “Perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with (what?) punishment.” Eternal. I think you’re seeing it. “And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” Again, that’s teleos. If you’re a believer in Christ, and you love Jesus, and you love His Word, and it grieves you when you sin and you wish your life looked more like Him, and your heart is heavy, and you feel like you know, “What if am I going to get there and I’m going to be rejected?” Listen to me, take heart, Christian, you’re the real thing. Stop doubting what He said. Stop doubting His promises. And walk in love so that you can have this assurance and you can recognize there’s no need for me to fear. Look at the love as you see the motivation. How will you get that love? Verse 19, “We love because He first.” So how do I grow in love? You grow in knowing and believing His love for you. Let’s run it back through. Let’s go back same verses. We’ll start verse 16. Now you know it, so now you can see it. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also, are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected or matured in love. We love because He first loved us.”
I’m going to show you a quote by the English theologian John Gill from the 1700s related to our Romans 8:15a text, I love the way he put it.
“And though fear may arise from the convictions of sin, yet this he removes by discoveries of love.”
You mean the dread that you’re going to get there and here, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” The dread of that and that should shake you, because it’s a very fearful thing. But let me tell you what the people that are going to hear that are not people who were worried about it. It’s people who are confident they’re so religious and so acceptable that they’re accepted on their own merit. That’s who’s going to hear that. We’ve come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. I want to round it out with Romans 13:8-10, because we’re going to end up there, you know, about eight years. But the fact that love is the thing that fulfills the law, that means the love is the thing that God’s genuinely after. It’s not all the details. It’s that root that bears that fruit. “Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has (what?) fulfilled the law. For the commandments (here’s just a list of some of them), ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, you shall not covet’ and any other (look at that) commandment are summed up in this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” That’s the way it works, right? So how do I get this out of my life? Come to know the love that He has for you. You say, “That’s how I’m going to be sanctified?” Yeah, it actually is. That’s why we’ve been doing this all the way from Romans one, here’s what you deserve, here’s what He gave you. You deserve condemnation. He gave you justification. Now He’s working sanctification, and it won’t work as quick as it could if you don’t believe He loves you. Just works that way. You might be here going, “Pastor, you don’t know what I’ve done.” Right? I don’t need to know what you’ve done. He knows. You don’t know what I’ve done. So, checkmate, you can’t out sin His grace. You can’t out sin His blood. Our sins, there are many, His mercies are more. It’s never been more true.
So, when we sin, what do we do? Here’s what we do. 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful.” That means He’ll always do it, and He’s just. That means He doesn’t break justice. That means it just goes on Christ “To forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And what does that cause every time He does it, love yet again. And you see it demonstrated. How many of you, I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but maybe you’ve had this thought. Maybe you’ve had this thought, “How could God put up with me?” I’ve had that thought. I just had it right now. I wouldn’t have chosen me. Some of you wouldn’t have chosen me either but probably works both ways. I wouldn’t have chosen me. I don’t see anything that would have caused God to go, “Oh, wow!” No. So, I’m humbled by that, and you should be too. And every time we have to come, we have to say, “Father, forgive me for Christ’s sake.” Basically, what are we seeing? We’re seeing His love manifest, and we come to know it more and more and more and more.
I’m gonna read you another quote. We’re gonna put these two paragraphs up on the screen, and this is Donald Grey Barnhart, one of my favorite theologians.
Here’s the quote related Romans 8:15, “He (Paul) would tell men that they could trust Christ and know that all their sins were removed, both those they had already committed and those that would be committed in the future for justification can mean nothing less than this, that a believer is received by God in the totality of his life span, and that he is instantly made accepted in the Beloved. God does not want His children to be in fear. When Jesus Christ died, the sword of judgment was forever sheathed in His body, and not even God Himself can draw it forth to strike a man who has put His trust in the Savior. Therefore, we have not been given the spirit of bondage, which would inspire fear within our hearts.” We are no longer slaves to fear. Let’s see the verse one last time Romans 8:15a, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,…” But instead, what overcomes it? Love. You’ll manifest it when you come to see His love for you.
KEYWORDS
Fear, Romans 8:15, Holy Spirit, Assurance, Confidence, Believers, Unbelievers, Sin, Judgment, Love, Truth, Discipleship, Sanctification, Eternal Life, Eternal Death, Wrath, Punishment, Matured, Perfected, Condemnation, Righteousness, Natural Revelation, General Revelation, Special Revelation, Teleos, Bema Seat, Great White Throne, Hypostatic Union, Gospel, Bible Church, Churches In Texas, Grayson County, Online Sermon, John Gill, Donald Grey Barnhart
Speaker
Steve LeBlanc