Fear: Law and Gospel Pt 2

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, April the ninth, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten forty four am Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well. It all started with a newspaper, the sort of the Lord Newspaper to be exact, page twenty one. There's an article entitled Faithfully Facing Fears fearlessly.

0:48 Faithfully facing your fears fearlessly. Try saying that five times fast, all right, faithfully facing your fears fearlessly. And the next thing you know, we were talking about fears and phobia. We traced how Christianity has handled the subject of fear throughout Church history, all the different traditions and how they've approached it. I talked about what I feel is a glaring inconsistency that on one hand, Christianity is like, don't fear, do not fear, do not have fear, and then five seconds later they're like, fear this, worry about this? Oh no, this is going to destroy us panic, fear, worry, Hey, no, no, no, no, no, don't have fear, don't worry, and it's like, well, which is it. So we talked about all of that, but today we come to I think the most important part of this discussion. In fact, this is the reason we're having this discussion. We are going to look at the subject of fear in a very different way. I believe one of the major issues in the church in twenty twenty five, and this has been true for a very very long time, is that a majority of the church no longer looks at things from a proper law gospel perspective.

2:07 A true law gospel perspective has been lost by most of the church and by most Christians, and I believe that is majorly problematic and it leads to a lot of philological issues. So today we're going to return to this subject of fear. And I think if we're even remotely honest with ourselves, if even if we I know some of you will try to pretend I don't have any fear, I don't have any worry, I don't have any any anxiety, because I know that's what you're supposed to say, because you love church answers, and you know what you're supposed to pretend to be. But if you're, if we can pill back all of that facade, all of your you know, I hate to say it, being a poser, all your posturing, if we really get down to it inside of you, if you're even if you're even remotely honest. Fear touches every single one of us. Fear, worry, and anxiety. Now, for some of us, maybe we carry it like a heavy coat that we can't take off.

3:14 Maybe others of us hide it so very well, but it's always buzzing beneath the surface to some level. And a lot of times I don't I'm not worried about this. I don't have any fear. I don't have any anxiety about this. But sometimes when the right situation start forming, we see that fear, We see that panic, we see that worry in so many different ways. It may not be the way you think, but it's there, over and over and over again. And I think for many people, whether we want to admit it or not, we live with a quiet, persistent dread. Maybe fear of the future, maybe fear of failure, maybe fear of being alone, maybe fear of beings, maybe fear that we we're just we're just not enough, maybe just fear about so many things.

4:07 I mean, the list could be long. If we're honest. Fear shows up in nearly every corner of life. And you know what, I think this is very important. What's important to know. What's striking is that the Bible speaks directly to it, repeatedly. Fear not, do not worry, be anxious for nothing. Now these aren't suggestions, these are commands. God actually tells us not to fear, not to worry, not to be anxious. But here's the tension we face. We do fear, we do worry, we do have anxiety, we are bothered, we are concerned. No, we know the commands.

4:51 We may memorize the commands. We may put them on the refrigerator. We may talk about them in small group. We may hear sermons preached on it. We may write down the five step plan to not fear, and we're gonna do this, and we're gonna do that, and we're gonna be like this, and we're going to do this. And we may buy books on the subject, and we may go to sermons that almost sound like a self help program. And we've writen down all the techniques but the reality is you still fear, you still worry, you still have anxiety, even if you're telling everyone, well, I'm not really worried because you know, I trust in God and I'm not really afraid. Yeah, But then the reality is everyone can see the worry and the fear in the anxiety because it's there now. Guess what, Then that leads us to fear worrying anxiety because we're having fear wearing anxiety and we're not supposed to be having fear worried anxiety. So then we feel guilt and shame and feel like a felt Okay, it just becomes this very very very very never ending like hamster will of guilt, regret and shame and trying harder. So how do we read these verses without falling in to that guilt shame or or falling into some kind of pretending and some kind of pretense. How do we read these verses and not end up and complete spiritual burnout because we've tried everything and we still are filled with all of these feelings and all of these emotions. Many sermons and devotionals

6:23 treat these commands like strategies, and that's what most pastors do they treat all of these commands and all these scriptures like it's a strategy. Here's how to stop being afraid. Just pray more, trust more, believe harder, just stop it. Just trust God. Remember his power, remember his sovereignty, remember his ability. Stop looking at your inability, stop looking at your situations. And they say all the right things and you're like, yes, I'm going to do it, and then well, you know what happens And ultimately all of that just turns Christianity or the Christian life into some type of a technique. And what happens when those techniques don't work, When we're left feeling like failures are worse, we feel like frauds. So today, in this episode, I'm going to approach the subject the only way I think the scriptures can be properly understood, and that is with a true law Gospel perspective. That's the only thing, and what I'm going to try to teach you before this is over, is that you need to approach every subject from a law Gospel perspective. It can be fear, it can be worried and being anxiety. You name the subject, you should understand it from a law Gospel perspective, you have to.

7:47 So what does this mean? What means I'm going to take the commands seriously? All right, I'm going to take them as God's law. I'm not gonna water them down. I'm not gonna say, well, as long as you're trying, and I mean, you're not gonna do it perfectly, but that's okay. No, no, no, We're going to take the command seriously. Anytime you read the Bible and there is a command, you don't water it down. You don't explain it away. You don't say, well, God just wants you to do your best. No, you say it's a command and God demands perfection the end. Any other approach to commands is ridiculous. It's like, well, it's just about no, he wants you to do it this way because he demands perfection. And we're gonna let those commands expose our hearts and confront our weaknesses. We're gonna take the command seriously.

8:36 We're not gonna water them down, and we're gonna let them show us who we really are. And then we're gonna let the law do exactly what it was meant to do, drive us to Christ, who alone perfectly obeyed these commands. It was Jesus who slept through the storm. It was Jesus who walked into death without flinching. It was Jesus who entrusted himself to the Father even when he felt abandoned. It was Jesus who fulfilled every command to fear not. It was Jesus and his obedience which is now accredited to us. So just in case you maybe you're someone who has felt these things. Maybe you want to pretend you haven't felt these things, but hey, if you've if you're if you've ever felt that you are failing God because you're afraid, if you've ever felt that you know, I can't even admit that I'm afraid because I can't even admit that I'm worried or have anxiety.

9:33 If you've ever felt that way, if you've ever felt that your anxiety somehow disqualifies you from having real faith, you're if you're ever someone that felt that peace is something for stronger Christians and you've not yet seemed to get there and can't quite experience, well, then I hope that this episode is going to be beneficial because I'm definitely not here to say try harder stop fearing read more doom. I'm here to try to show you how Christ perfect his righteousness and trusting in him and in his sinless peace, and his unshackled rest and the Father has been given to you by grace alone. I want you to see that Christ had perfect trust. Let me state it this way. Christ had perfect trust, he had sinless peace, he had unrest, unshakable rest, and trust in the Father, and all of that has been given to you by grace alone. That's the way I should state that.

10:36 Let me try it again. Here's what I want to show you in this episode. I want to show you that that perfect trust that Christ had in the Father, not my will, but your will be done. That perfect trust. He had perfect peace, sinless peace, he had an unshakable rest in the Father. All of that, all of that obedien, all of that perfection has been given to you and accredited to you by grace Salon. You don't get it because you try harder. It's been given to you by Grace Alan, It's been imputed to you, it's been accredited to your account. So we're gonna look at fear from a law gospel perspective. Then I'm gonna try to challenge you to kind of look at scriptures from a different way moving forward. So are you ready? Here we go.

11:35 Scripture commands us not to fear, not to worry, not to be filled with anxiety or live a life of anxiety, or to be anxious about anything. You should not be anxious about anything. You're not to worry, You're not to fear. The Bible commands that. There's no watering it down. The Bible commands that. Here's some direct commands or imperatives in scripture Isaiah forty one to ten. Fear not for I am with you. Now, we could get into a discussion that fear not you applies to Israel within their context. I understand that, but I'm just going to approach that most Christians will preach these as being for us. So let's just say that's a command to fear not Deuteronomy, do not be afraid or discourage that Deuteronomy thirty one eight. Again, it has a historical context. Most pastors don't care about that, but so let's just go with the idea that these are imperatives in these commands. I'm not going to get into who they were four, but it's a command. Do not fear, do not be discouraged. Genesis fifteen to one, do not be afraid, Luke twelve thirty two, Fear not little flock, Matthew ten twenty eight. Do not fear those who kill the body. We can go to other scriptures to don't be filled with anxiety, don't give thought to what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, don't you know? Over an other other scriptures about fear not, don't worry, don't be filled with anxiety. Those are commands,

13:09 all right. We cannot we cannot deny that in any way, shape or form. They are commands. We have other scriptures like do not be anxious about your life Matthew chapter six, be anxious for nothing, Philippians chapter four. Cast all your anxiety on him, first Peter chapter five. So we could go through all of these scriptures Isaiah forty one to ten, Douteronomy thirty one eight, Genesis fifteen one, Luke twelve thirty two, Matthew ten twenty eight, Matthew six twenty five through thirty four, Philippians four eight, Be anxious for nothing, first Peter five seven. Cast all your anxiety on him. These are not suggestions. They're not gentle nudges. They are commands. The law says, do not fear, do not worry, trust fully completely trust, don't worry, don't fear. That's how Look, and if you've been to church in any length of time, you've heard sermons about don't worry, don't fear. God has not given you a spirit of fear. Don't do this. Stop it.

14:11 It is wrong, it is sin. And you've written down all the scriptures and they'll give you the steps right and almost inevitably the steps are going to be pray more, read more, go to church more, do this, stop looking at this, look at things from this perspective, and you've written them all down, and you maybe you've convinced yourself you're following all of these commands. That's fine if you want to pretend. But these are not suggestions, they are commands. So the first thing I want you to see is that Scripture commands you not to fear, worry, or be anxious. I mean, I don't know sure I could look up each one of these passages of scripture and that would just become redundant. But you get the idea. The Bible is giving you a command. Do not be filled with fear, worry or anxiety. Do not do it. Trust God completely.

15:05 And everybody will say amen to those commands. Then they'll want three or four points in how to do it. Then they run off to go do it. But here's the thing, here's number two. You cannot keep these commands. You cannot, you never will. You're going to fall short over and over and over again. Let's even just try to remotely be honest. There is some level of fear, worry, and anxiety that is present almost all the time. Now at that very moment, you may not be feeling the full effects of that fear, right because whatever you fear, you're not currently facing, you're not currently experiencing. So right now you can say, oh, I'm not afraid. You may not be afraid at this moment. But whatever those things are you are afraid of, it's just once those things present them themselves again, once the situation shows up, what you're confronted with it. We fear death, we fear loneliness, and Christians will say, oh, I don't fear death. Everyone always likes to talk a big game. That's what I notice about Christians. We love to talk a big game, people, fear, loneliness, financial ruin, public opinion, our kid's future, sickness, rejection, judgment, so many things. And even those who considered heroes of the faith did not live fearlessly. Remember the name of the article, facing faithfully, Facing your fears fearlessly. Even the

16:40 heroes of the faith did not faith live their life facing fear fearlessly. Abraham lied about Sarah twice why because he was afraid. Genesis chapter twelve eleven through thirteen and Genesis Chapter twenty verse two. Moses feared Pharaoh and fled Exodus chapter two, fourteen through fifteen. David wrote, Psalms full of fear, dread and anxiety. My heart is in anguish Psalm fifty five. Elijah, after Mount Carmel's miracle, fled in fear of Jezebel and begged to die. One Kings Chapter nineteen. Jeremiah, I am full of fear Jeremiah Chapter six. Peter feared man so deeply that he denied Christ three times. Luke Chapter twenty two fifty four through sixty two. Paul spoke of being burdened beyond strength, so that we despaired even of life. Tewod Corinthians, Chapter one. I mean, over and over the Bible shows even the heroes of the faith fear, worry, anxiety, concern, anguish, doubt they express. We can read the words of job and the pain, frustration, confusion because the people in the Bible, even though we want to put them on some grand pedestal as if they were perfect, because we want to believe that everyone basically can be perfect, the reality, they were human beings who had fear, worry, and anxiety and did things when faced with sometimes difficult circumstances. We could

18:13 go through the story of David in situations where he was fearful or in bad situations because of Absolom or whatever, or Saul or whatever. He was some of the things he did. You're like, that sounded like he was afraid, worry, filled with anxiety. He did not trust God. He came up with his own plan, and sometimes that plan ended up in other people dying. There's other cases that, well, he didn't show any fear here. That's okay, that's the way it works. As human beings and this situation, you may not show fear, doesn't mean you don't have fears, doesn't mean you don't have worries. Doesn't mean you don't have anxieties, just means in that particular situation, you don't. But the fears and worries and anxieties are still fair.

18:56 You just sometimes need the right circumstance to show you that they are there. They basically fear, worrying, and anxiety. A lot of times we can go put it in the closet and say, see it's all taken care of. I'm a Christian, I trust call it. Everything is wonderful. All it takes is the right set of circumstances and the right situation and just brings the fear right back up. Not that it was ever gone, you just weren't facing certain situations. Fear, anxiety, and worry were a part of their lives that you can't get around that. And it's just like you and I. These commands, when taken seriously, they expose our constant failure to rest perfectly in God.

19:49 That's what all those commands. Do not fear, be not worried, give no thought for this, don't do this, don't do that. You can read it. You can say, oh I'm gonna try, I'm gonna try. What you should do is like wait, a minute, Wait a minut wait a minute, trying, trying. You know what, this is just showing me that I can't. This is showing my failure. This is showing me who I am. And Christians have a hard time reading the Bible that way instead of going to the commands and saying, oh, the command is showing me that I can't. The command is showing me that I don't. The command is showing me who I am. No, no, no, no. We read it as oh, It's given me a five step program so that I can do it, because I can do it, and then I'm going to pretend that I am doing it.

20:33 And the Church has been playing that game for way too long. We need to see the commands as actually showing us the reality of who we are. Man, I know I shouldn't have worry. I know I shouldn't have the anxiety. I know I shouldn't be discouraged. I know I should be trusting in God. I but you know what, I'm doing all of the things I'm not supposed to do. I'm filled with this worry, fear and anxiety and some circumstances. So Number one Scripture commands us not to fear or worry or be filled with anxiety. It commands us to do that. Number two, we cannot keep these commands. Even the saints failed, even the so called heroes of the faith failed over and over and over and over again.

21:27 So that brings us to the third part. Christ alone obeyed these commands perfectly. Jesus never sinned Hebrews four fifteen. That includes sins of worry, sins of doubt, or sins of fear, and the storm. While his disciples panicked, he slept in peace, Mark chapter four, verses thirty seven through thirty nine. Let me go there, Mark chapter four, verses thirty seven through thirty nine. All right, we'll go to verse thirty five. Mark chapter four, verse thirty five. Right, look at this, Mark four thirty five. And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over into the other side. This is Mark four thirty five. Now verse thirty six. And when they had sent away the multitude, And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him. They took him even as he was in the ship, and they were also with him, with him other little ships verse thirty seven.

22:34 And there rose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, and they they awake him, say, unto him, master Caros, not thou that we perish. And he arose and rebuked the wind and said into the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm, and he said, unto them, why are ye so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, Why are you so fearful? Now? What pastors do? They preach this as hey, guys, stop being fearful. Trust that Jesus is in the boat. Trust that he's gonna calm the storm. Trust that He's gonna make everything right in your life. Now. The only problem with that is that that story has nothing to do with Jesus in the boat of your life, has nothing to do with him calming the storms in your life.

23:31 Because he may not calm the storm in your life. Not only will the storm possibly get worse in your life, it may kill you, kill your loved ones, destroy everything. You have no guarantees in this life. So when preachers preach this, I want to scream because they're lying to people. The point of this story is these men who were with Jesus were scared to death and they had fear, and they are rebuked. They are condemned for them fear. And you say, well, so what should I take from that? Just as they were fearful, we are fearful and we are condemned for that fear because God gives us a command not to fear. So you should be like WHOA, I'm just like them. I see my fear, I see my worry, I see my anxiety. What do I do?

24:22 What is the answer? Is the answer? Four steps? Try harder. No. What we have to see is we see our failure. But you know what else I see in that text? I see jesus obedience. I see his lack of fear. So Jesus never sinned. That includes sends a worried about in fear and in the storm. While the disciples panicked, he slept in peace. He did what they couldn't do. He did what they couldn't do. When facing arrest and death, he did not run, but he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Luke nine, verse fifty one, and Gasemine he was deeply distressed, yet he did not flee or rebel.

25:06 He trusted the Father and submitted. Luke Chapter twenty two forty two through forty four. He may have cried out in anguish, but he trusted God. He may have expressed his anguish, but he didn't not sin. He was not overcome with fear, worried, and anxiety, because he ultimately said, not my will, but your will be done Before pilot, he remained calm, silent, and unshaken. John chapter nineteen nine through eleven. On the Cross, he endured the full terror of divine wrath, crying out in agony, but trusting. Even in death, he trusted. He did not. He was not filled with fear or anxiety or worry. He may have suffered pain, but he did not was overcome with worry, fear, or anxiety. Jesus then obeyed every single command about no fear, no worry, no anxiety. He ob bade them perfectly. Where you and I panic, he rests. He sleeps where we flee.

26:14 He stood where we worry. He trusted. He fulfilled every command not to fear. We could say this. Where we panic, he rested, where we flee. He stood where we worry. He trusted. He fulfilled every single command of not fearing or being filled with worry and anxiety. So how do we look at this from a law gospel perspective? Number one, okay, Scripture commands us not to fear, worry, or be anxious. Number two, we cannot keep these commands. Even the saints failed.

26:56 Number three, Christ alone obey these commands. Obey these commands. Number four. In Christ, we fulfill these commands. Positionally through faith we are united to Christ Galatians Chapter two, twenty two, Verse twenty, Romans six, verses three through five. And his obedience is counted as ours. By the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous Romans five nineteen. God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Tewod Corinthians five twenty one. That's not that we become righteous in practice, as we are declared to be perfectly righteous. Positionally, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Romans eight one. You know why there's therefore now no condemnation, because all my sin has been paid for, and his perfection and his obedience has been imputed to my account. So I now stand before God in Christ, perfect, holy, righteous, and I have in Christ. I obey every single command not to be filled with worry, not to be filled with fear, and not to be filled with anxiety. In practice, I still have fear, worry, in anxiety. I'm not excusing that we still have it, but we still have it.

28:18 That means when God says, do not fear, and we do fear, we confess our failure and rest in the obedience of Christ, who did not fear. When we are riddled with anxiety, we run not to self effort, but to the cross where peace was purchased. When we feel ashamed of our panic, our trembling, our insomnia. Insomnia are, if I can say the word right, insomnia, Okay, our ability not to sleep because we're filled with worry, fear, and anxiety. We remember that we're clothe in Christ's fearless trust. So when we see the commands, Man, why can't I sleep?

28:59 Because I'm filled with war, worry, and I'm doubt, and i have anxiety, and I have no peace here, and I'm bothered here, and I'm bothered here. I run to Christ because He took care of all of it for me. It's not try harder, do better. I run to the one who did it for me perfectly. Law says, do not fear. Reality says I do that way more than I want to admit. The Gospel says Christ's feared not, and in him, I'm counted as fearless. Only this approach keeps us from perpetual guilt because we never fully obey these commands. Only this approach keeps us from pretending we're fearless to prove we're good Christians. I don't have to pretend anything. I can acknowledge fear, worry, and anxiety because I know in Christ, I'm fearless. Positionally, this keeps us from weaponizing these versus to shame other people. Oh you've got this worry, you've got this problem, you've got this, Just stop it, stop doing it. Come on, here's the scriptures that tells you to fear not. I don't turn it into a weapon like that. I'm like, oh, well, let me give you some comfort. I'm not going to tell you to try harder. I'm going to show you that Christ has done it for you. You're fearful. He wasn't.

30:24 You worry he didn't. You're filled with anxiety he wasn't. And that is now all accredited to you. Now, what happens when we ignore the law and Gospel in the Bible's commands against fear? What happens if we just we ignore this law gospel approach, or you're going to turn the good news into a crushing, a crushing burden. When you read do not fear, be anxious for nothing, and fear not as command you're expected to fulfill and you fail, you and you will, you will end up in a cycle of guilt, shame, and defeat. See when you when you don't, when you obey it, when you I should say, when you disregard, when you ignore the law gospel distinction. Right, when you when you ignore the law Gospel and these commands, you're going to turn good news into crushing burden. When you read do not fear, You're be anxious for nothing and fear not as a command. When you read them as a command that you are expected to fulfill, and you fail and you will, you're going to end up in a cycle of guilt, shame, and defeat. When you go and you're like, oh, this is a command. I have to do it. I have to fulfill it. I've got to try harder. If that's how you approach these commands, I'm sorry. You're just going to be beaten down, beaten down, or you're gonna have to just start pretending. See, the law says you must not fear, You must trust fully,

31:57 You must cast your anxiety away. You do fear, You do worry. You do lie awake at night filled with thoughts about this and this and this. You do panic sometimes. And if there's no gospel behind these commands, then each command becomes a hammer. Why don't I have peace? What's wrong with me? I must not be a real Christian. God must be disappointed in me instead of leading us to Christ. The law will crush you when it's not followed by the gospel. That's what will happen. You'll be crushed, You'll be You'll just it's not gonna make anything better other than you trying harder, harder. Heart. No, you have to see the law as revealing what you are and then driving you to Christ. So it will turn good news.

32:47 Because when you see the law, you should also see the good news. I didn't, but Christ did. But it turns the good news into a crushing burden. You're gonna pretend or perform instead of confess, and rest and worry are seen as moral or spiritual failures without a gospel resolution. Christians will hide their fear because it's shameful, fake peace because it's expected, perform trust without actually experiencing it. And that's what Christians do. You hide their fear because you don't want to be shame. You don't want to feel shame. You're gonna fake peace because that's what's expected, and you're going to perform as if you're trusting you are. You're now just going to be a character and a movie.

33:28 My name is trusting good in God, even though you may not actually be experiencing it. You end up with a church full of people saying God is in control. Well inside they're trembling, worry, fearful, and shameful. The culture becomes one of pretense, not honesty, and honesty is where real healing begins. Because it's gonna become a culture of everyone pretending. It's just dress up. It's pretend our and I say it all the time. The church is where everyone just plays pretend. It's just drama club, everyone's pretending to be something they're not. A third thing that will happen if we don't look at this from a long Gospel perspective, is you weaponize scripture against those who are actually hurting and struggling. When fear is only ever talked about as sin or weakness, and when we forget Christ's obedience in our place, we begin to shame others who are suffering. You just need more faith. Are you reading your Bible enough? Have you prayed about it? You know God said not to worry. Right. Instead of compassion, we offer commands. Instead of walking with the hurting, we scold them for being human. Ironically, this kind of theology increases anxiety, especially for people dealing with trauma, depression or clinical panic disorders. Ultimately, you just create more pain, more suffering, more panic, more worry, more fear, more shame, more guilt. You actually hurt the very people you think you're helping because you're doing it

34:58 from a completely misguided theological position that hey, you can keep the law, you can do it. So everything's about do more, do more, try harder, Come on, you can do it, do it. It gets It's just so tiresome. And that's all you ever hear in sermons. A fourth thing, if we don't have a law gospel distinction, you turn the Bible into a strategy manual, not a story of redemption. If you treat a verse like Philippia's four to six be anxious for nothing or Matthew six, do not worry about your life as a technique instead of commands that drive us to Christ, you start looking to the Bible like a spiritual self help book. Here's how to overcome fear.

35:39 Read more, pray more, quote versus, visualize peace. But then when those strategies don't work, people are left thinking God's words. God's word must not be that powerful. I must be doing it wrong. Maybe I'm beyond help. The Gospel is then replaced by formula, and when the formulas fail, faith gets shipwrecked. Another thing that happens is we lose sight of Christ. Most importantly, if we don't interpret the commands to fear not through the lens of law and gospel, you end up making our peace depend on our performance. You make the Christian life about behavior modification, not redemption.

36:24 You make yourself the center of the story and not Christ. It becomes about you. You you, you, you, you, you you, And that's how sermons are constantly preached, ever passages about you, do more, do more, read more, go here, do this, try this. Here's four steps, here's five steps. Come on, come on, come on, come on, And it's all about you and Christ. He's just there to kind of He died so that we can be better. He didn't die because we will never be better. Christ is just there so that he can kind of give us a little help so that we can be done to the super people, the best wife, the best husband, the best this, the best that, the best this. And it doesn't work that way, and it destroys the actual gospel. Instead of being driven to rest in this perfect trust, we're driven to try harder to conjure up our own. And when that fails, and it will, we don't look to him. We tend to look inward. That's spiritual exhaustion. That's law without gospel.

37:26 That's ultimate death. The right way is law than gospel. The law says you must not fear, you must trust god fully, you must be anxious for nothing. That's true. We don't water it down, we don't minimize it, we don't explain it away. And we acknowledge that we will never truly obey it. But then the Gospel shows up because now you feel guilty. Now you feel like a failure. Now you realize you're never going to obey it. And then the Gospel comes and says, hey, hey, hey, Christ did Christ feared not even unto death. Christ obeyed perfectly in your place. You are clothed in his obedience. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

38:31 Now you are free to bring your fear to Him, to acknowledge it, and to say, Lord, I fear. You don't fear. Your obedience to these commands are mine by faith alone. I stand not in my ability not to fear. I stand in the fact that you did not fear, and so positionally I'm obeying all of these commands. But Lord, practically I'm filled with worry, anxiety, and doubt. And you can bring it to Him. You don't have to tend, you don't have to perform only the law. Gospel interpretation honors the biblical texts as if these are real commands.

39:13 They acknowledge human reality. We're broken and weak. It exalts Christ, he fulfilled the law, and it provides rest for the soul. You're not condemned for being afraid because Christ obeyed it for you, and there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So you should rest in the one who slept in the storm. Jesus is not giving you the way and how that you can sleep in the storm. He's showing you he slept in the storm, because we are constantly going to be fearful and we're not. So when Jesus slept in the storm, he wasn't just modeling peace. He was fulfilling what you cannot do. You may fear the storm, you may shake the boat, you may be shaking in the boat, but in him, your record says you slept peacefully and perfect trust because he did, and you are in him. You are in him. That's the way you have to approach this. Now, what I want you to do. I was going to go ahead and do this now, but I'm at forty minutes and I'm not super happy with the way I've done this, so I'm you know, who knows if I'm even going to keep this, So I'm not going to add more to it, but I want you to start doing this for the next I don't care for the It's April

40:44 the ninth, for the rest of April, for the rest of April. Anytime you're reading your Bible, anytime you listen to a sermon, I want you to write down the commands you see. Here's a command, here's a command. The sermon's giving you commands. If this sermon preaches a scripture, that's command. If the sermon, if the pastor's just giving you commands, do this, read this, do this, don't do this, do this. If he's telling you to do something or not to do something. Anytime you see a command. Anytime you see a command, I want you to write down the command, and then I want you to think about how Christ fulfilled that command. Anytime you hear a command, I don't want you to write down how you can do better, how you can try harder. I don't want you to write down the forty seven steps the pastor gave you to do so that you can do it, that they have a conference, that there's a support group, that you can do this, you can buy this book.

41:39 You can do this. You can jump up and down, you can slam your head in the wall five times, or you'll be a better all the nonsense the Church gives you, just stop listening to them. Stop say Okay, there's the command. Christ fulfilled the command. Go look for how Christ fulfilled the command. Write down the command, look for how Christ fulfill the command. The end, who cares what the Church is saying? Who cares they keep telling you to do something. Don't listen to them. It's man made, legalistic, just nonsense that's going to just beat you into either beat you into a position that you have to pretend, pretend pretend, or beat you into a total pit of despair, despondency, anxiety, fear, worry, and you don't understand how you ended up in this living hell that Christianity put you in. Out for the next rest of this month. Any anything you hear it, that's a command. Write it down. Here's the command. Don't minimize the command, don't water down the command. It is a command. And then you go look and see how Christ fulfilled that command. And then you know what you tell yourself, I couldn't, I can't, I will never do it.

42:53 Christ did it for me, and rest in that the end. Fear Yes, the Bible tells you do not be afraid, Do not worry, do not have anxiety. It tells you that do not water that down. That's a command. You know what you do when you see that command. Man, I have worry, have fear, have anxiety. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm an unclean man. I am an unman of unclean lips. I'm a man filled with fear, worry, and doubt. But there is the one. His name is Christ, who came into this world, was confronted with everything that causes fear. But he showed no fear, no worry, anxiety.

43:43 He showed perfect trust in the Father. He was at peace when everyone else was shaking. He was at peace in the storm. And it's in him that positionally, I'm at peace in him because his perfect obedience and peace and righteousness is in peace to me. I stand in him, perfect, complete and whole. All right, we'll talk more about a kind of low gospel Bible study method. Maybe we'll do an entire episode on that, but for now I'll stop right there. Thank you Solva so much for listening. Remember, write down the commands, Write down how Christ fulfilled the commands.

44:30 God bless