Messages
from the Bible
A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
A lot of people seem to believe that Christian faith is synonymous with positive thinking.
It started with the New York minister, Norman Vincent Peale, and his preaching and writings about the "Power of Positive Thinking". Succeeding him a generation later was a feast minister in the Reformed church, Robert Schuller - he changed it a bit to "Possibility Thinking." At one point, Rev. Schuller boasted that he would bring into being a new reformation, the new age of positive self-esteem. Out with all the negativity, in with the positive.
Of course, we all know that we can't really get along with only the positives. We still need some of the "Shalt Nots." In fact we would even say that because we have allowed the disappearance of the 10 commandments from our national life, we have reaped a great abundance of social ills. We need to keep in front of ourselves, and our children, the reality that there are some absolute wrongs - "Thou shalt not take the Lord's Name in vain, thou shalt not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony or covet." These negatives are positively necessary.
But there are some who would point to the teachings of Jesus and say, "See? He preached a positive message. Instead of harping on the negatives, He merely pointed out the one great positive, 'Love'. So let's all just love ! After all, Paul pointed out that "Love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10) But don't forget, Paul also pointed out that we still need the law as a "school master." So yes, we do need the negative injunctions, the "Thou Shalt Nots."
But there's a another set of "nots" which I want to point out as being important for Christians. Actually, there are many, but the four I want to emphasize here will be easy to remember - they all begin with the letter "F" - These could be called "The Four Nots of Godliness", Forget Not, Fret Not, Forbid Not, and Fear Not.
I. The Bible is very clear that there are a number of things which we should "FORGET NOT.
Forget not His law. (Psalms 119:153) Yes, there are absolute, non-debatable requirements given by God which must not be ignored.
Forget not His covenant. (2 Kings 17:38) There is an agreement with God that through the shed blood of Jesus we have eternal life. The broken bread and the cup are helpful reminders.
Forget not His works. (Psalms 78:7) Every day we should notice what God has done in the world around us, and give Him praise and worship.
Forget not His benefits. (Psalms 103:2) The memory of the good things He has done in our own lives should be kept alive for us and our children by telling and retelling the stories of His goodness.
Forget not His word. (Psalms 119:16) There are so many other things which distract us, the constant parade of visual images, TV, video, movies all which seem so much more exciting than the printed page.
Forget not His offerings. (Hebrews 13:16) It's all too easy to see what others have, and desire these things for ourselves, and forget to honor the Lord with His tithes and our offerings. We must never forget to put Him first with our money.
II. There is also the exhortation of Scripture that points out that we should "FRET NOT"
Mostly, "fretting" has to do with our getting upset when we see others who seem to be well off, even though we are obviously more righteous than they.
The one passage where this is most often mentioned is in Psalm 37:
Verse 1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Verse 7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Verse 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
III. Third, we have the "FORBID NOT" commands.
Jesus also made it clear that we are not to forbid others who are doing the Lord's work, even if they are not in our group. (Mark 9:39)
And Paul taught that we should not forbid the speaking in tongues. (1 Corinthians 14:39)
IV. But the negative command that I want to emphasize the most is this one, "FEAR NOT".
You may be surprised to know that the word "fear" occurs 385 times in the Bible, and the companion word, "afraid" can be found 189 times. Furthermore, our phrase "fear not" is given some 60 times.
Let me give you a few examples:
God Himself spoke these very words to Abraham in Genesis 15, to Hagar in Genesis 21, to Isaac in Genesis 26, to Joshua (Joshua 8:1), and to Gideon. (Judges 6:23)
Joseph, when he was being reconciled with his brothers, spoke these words, "Fear Not" to his brothers. (Genesis 43:23)
Moses spoke these words to the people of Israel several times: first as they were preparing to cross the Red Sea (Exodus 14:13); when he gave them the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:20); when he was trying to prepare the people to go into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 1:21); and to fortify them for battle against their enemies. (Deuteronomy 20:3)
Boaz spoke these words to Ruth (Ruth 3:11), and Samuel used them to comfort the people when they had sinned. (1 Samuel 12:20)
Jonathan included "Fear Not" in his final conversation with David when they were preparing to separate because of Saul's threat on David's life. (1 Samuel 23:16,17)
Elijah said "Fear Not" to the widow woman who was preparing to eat her last meal (1 Kings 17:13), and Elisha said the same thing to his servant who was aware that the city they were in had become surrounded by enemy troops - we love to quote this one- "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." (2 Kings 6:16)
They were used by David, giving instructions to his heir, Solomon (1 Chronicles 28:20), and by Isaiah when addressing the king Ahaz. (Isaiah 7:4)
Many times, through Isaiah, God relayed messages for His people while in captivity. Listen to these words:
"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:3-5) And one of my favorites, "Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." (Isaiah 43:1)
The angel spoke these words to Daniel when he was seeking understanding (Daniel 10:12)
And the prophet Joel wrote these words of great encouragement, "Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things." (Joel 2:21)
During the time of Jesus' birth, these words, "Fear Not" were given to Zacharias, John's father (Luke 1:13), to Joseph (Matthew 1:20), to Mary (Luke 1:30) and to the shepherds. (Luke 2:10)
Jesus spoke them to Peter when so many fish had been caught, and he realized what a great sinner he was. He said, "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men." (Luke 5:10)
He also spoke them to the troubled disciples in the midst of the storm (Mark 6:50), and to Jairus, the father of the 12 year old daughter who had become deathly sick. (Luke 8)
And He speaks these same words to all of His disciples, giving us comfort in the protective love of the Father:
(Luke 12:7 and Matthew 10:28 - "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.")
Angels spoke these words to the women who first came to the empty tomb. (Matthew 28:5)
And to Paul during the great storm that destroyed the ship he was on. (Acts 27:24)
The writer to the Hebrews encouraged the Christians of his day with these words, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." (Hebrews 13:6),
And last of all, the Lord spoke this "Fear Not" to his beloved disciple John on the Isle of Patmos. (Revelation 1:17)
Negative Thinking for Christians
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Forget not the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:11) It's so easy, in a materialistic and comfortable life style, to slowly begin to leave the Lord out, and eventually, forget Him all together.
The word is only found four or five times , and it means "to be hot, furious, burn, become angry, be kindled, to be displeased."
Especially, Jesus taught His disciples, don't forbid the children to come to Jesus. (Mark 10:14) We talk about this a lot, but it's so important that we refuse to do anything which will keep the little ones from coming to the Lord.
Believe me, it is still very necessary for us to hear these words "Fear Not" again today. The Scripture says, "God has not given us the spirit of to fear." And yet, as we approach the end of this millennium, that's exactly what is happening. Even Christians are getting caught up in fear about what's going to happen as we get closer to the beginning of Year Two Thousand (Y2K).
By the way have you heard the Y2K story about a computer company secretary wrote a memo to her boss? It went like this:
I hope that I haven't misunderstood your instructions because, to be honest, none of this "Y" to "K" problem made much sense to me.
At any rate, I have finished the conversion of all of the months on all the company calendars for next year. The calendars have returned from the printer and are ready to be distributed with the following new months: Januark, Februark, Mak, Julk.
I also changed all the days of each week to: Sundak, Mondak, Tuesdak, Wednesdak, Thursdak, Fridak, Saturdak.
We are now "Y" to "K" compliant.
But it's not just the fear of the computer bug that's plaguing many people as we close in on the year two thousand. There is an increasing number of people who are predicting the end of the world, many of them are Christians, and they're frightened.
Let me talk to you for a moment about the idea that Jesus is coming at the end of 1999. You may have seen the report on one of the news shows where a number of Christians are moving to Jerusalem's Mount Olivett area so they can have a "front row seat" to witness the coming of the Lord. They are certain it's going to happen when the new year begins, 173 days from today.
Do we believe that Jesus is coming back to earth? Yes, of course. But we also remember that He said no one would know the "day nor the hour". Where do these people get this idea from? It probably comes from the idea that man's number is "6". God created man on the 6th day. The mark of the beast is the ultimate number for man, "666". God's number then is "7". Peter wrote, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." ( 2 Peter 3:8) So these folks reason that because the creation took place in the year 4,00 B.C., we are now nearing the end of 6,000 years of human existence. When this year comes to an end, man's time is up. I hope you can easily see the fallacy of this interpretation.
First of all, the date for the creation is not at all certain. Yes, a century ago a Bible scholar named Bishop Usher figured it out to the best of his ability, and said that the creation took place in the year 4,004 B.C. We now know that he didn't take into consideration many of the historical gaps in the genealogies, and he was off by at least a couple thousand years. But if he were correct, then obviously we've missed it. The end of 6,000 years would have come four years ago. Add to that the confusion about the exact time of Jesus' birth. We now know that the Roman Emperor who decided to begin marking time with a new calendar beginning with the birth of Jesus, got it wrong. The year he decided was the birth year of Jesus was actually four years after the death of Herod, the king who tried to kill Baby Jesus! But one other thing. Put your thinking cap on for a moment, when will the second millennium end? Will it end on December 31, 1999? No, that's when the year 2,000 begins, the end of the millennium won't take place until a year later!
All this to say, let's not join those who are becoming fearful about coming of the end of the world. Besides, is that such a bad thing after all? No, unless we are like Lot's wife, who had trouble leaving it behind. Let's remember the words we began with, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3
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