Fear & Anxiety: Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life, Vol.2, Complete Edition

Fear & Anxiety: Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life, Vol.2, Complete Edition

By John Piper

Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life

24"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

25"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

34"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."

There are some kings who find it very effective to keep their subjects in constant anxiety. If the people are anxious about their life, and worry about where their next meal is coming from, then perhaps they will be more willing to do the king's bidding in order to get the food they need from the king's storehouse. Anxiety keeps them in their place. Fear makes the monarchy firm.

God's Kingship and the Anxiety of His People

But one of the greatest things about Jesus is that he does not want his people to be anxious. The main point of today's text is that God does not secure his kingship by cultivating anxiety. On the contrary, the aim of God's kingship is to free us from anxiety. God doesn't need to keep us anxious in order to establish his power and superiority. Instead he exalts his power and superiority by working to take away our anxiety.

If you are born again; if you have turned away from sin and are following Jesus as Lord in the obedience of faith, his will for you this morning is that you not be anxious about anything, but that you enjoy deep serenity and peace and security. Jesus spoke these words in Matthew 6:24–34 precisely for you—to help you overcome whatever is making you anxious this morning.

Each Person's Struggle

I suppose I chose this text today for myself as much as for anybody. I feel anxious every time I come back from vacation. It feels like it used to when I went back to school after a long summer. I wasn't sure I would still be able to write. Or maybe this new teacher would require a lot of oral book reviews in front of the class.

My Struggle

But my struggle with anxiety is not just at the end of vacations. I wake up anxious virtually every morning. It's probably some weird quirk in my personality, or maybe some remnant of imbalanced parental upbringing, or more likely because there is sin in my mind and heart every day. Whatever the reason, it is a very real experience that I hate and have to deal with every day. So this sermon is for me. I will probably check this tape out of the library in a few weeks and listen to it early some morning when I am bouncing on my jogger before breakfast.

Young People's Struggles

But I know it's not just my problem. I got a letter from a young woman in another state last week, who had just broken off a relationship with a man because he simply did not take any spiritual leadership in their relationship. She closed her letter like this, "I want so to live a life

A Sojourn on Earth in Confident Fear

And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

The Third Command in 1 Peter

We come now this morning to the third command of the Christian life in 1 Peter. Verses 1–12 were celebration of what God has done to make us his own forever and ever. Then in verse 13 came the first command: "Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So the first command is HOPE fully in the grace of God.

The second command came last week in verse 15: "Be holy in all your behavior." God says, "Be holy for I am holy" (v. 16). So the first command is be hopeful in the grace of God, and the second command is be holy in the holiness of God.

Today we reach the third command: "Conduct yourselves in fear." Verse 17: "And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth."

Live in hope!

Live in holiness!

Live in fear!

The Possibility of Increasing Resistance

With each of these commands we move farther and farther away from the temperament of the modern world. And with each succeeding week I know I can count on less and less natural sympathy for what I say.

For the first commandment, "Live in hope," I doubt that anyone had their defenses up thinking, "No way is he going to convince me that hope is a biblical way to live."

For the second commandment, "Live in holiness," the receptivity was still pretty high because we believe that God is holy, but we're not so sure we know what it means or what is really expected of us. So there's a little wariness about hearing a sermon on the necessity to be holy.

For the third commandment, "Live in fear," I assume almost universal suspicion for what I am about to say. Not that you don't trust me. Fear of God just isn't in the acceptable air we breath today. It's not part of the culturally correct—which means mainly psychologically correct—view of the healthy, satisfying religious life.

And not only that, but fear simply seems to be incompatible with hope. And incompatible with faith and peace and joy. After all, doesn't 1 John 4:18 say, "Perfect love casts out fear"? Yes, but the verse goes on, "Fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love." So until we are perfected in love, we may not use that verse to say there is no place for fearing punishment.

So for cultural and biblical reasons I understand that there is resistance to preaching about the fear of God.

What I Want to Plead For This Morning

So what I want to plead for first this morning is that you recognize that growing deeper and stronger as a Christian comes not by choosing to embrace only those biblical teachings you are already comfortable with and already easily understand—you don't grow that way. But rather you grow deep and strong by also embracing the teachings you are not comfortable with and that are hard to understand with the confidence that God has not taught us anything false or harmful in the Scriptures.

The second thing I want to plead for is that you take verses 17–19 seriously and strive to be counter-cultural enough and deeply biblical enough to make them part of how you live.

How Are We to Fear God?

We have a few minutes. Let me focus your attention on how Peter sees fearing God in relation to judgment and redemption. The command to fear is the second half of verse 17: "Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth." There's no special word for "reverence" or "reverent fear" in Greek. Adding that word is an editor's interpretation of what flavor he thinks the word should have. It may be right, or may be too limiting.

On either side of that command to conduct ourselves in fear is a reason for this fear. On the front side in the first half of verse 17 is this reason: "If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work . . . "

So the first reason for conducting ourselves in fear is that the One we call heavenly Father judges everybody on the same kind of evidence—namely, what do our lives (our deeds) say about our heart? There won't be different rules for different people. There is one thing that saves: faith. And there is one standard of judgment: life (deeds).

Fear Living as Though Our Faith Were Not in God

If this is true, Peter says, there is a very appropriate fear as we live our lives, namely, a fear of living as though our faith (our hope!) were not in God. Here's the link between verse 17 and verse 13, between living in hope and living in fear. What we are to fear, Peter means, is not hoping in God (cf. Romans 11:20).

When we are tempted to conduct ourselves in a way that would show that our hope is in money rather than God, we should fear. When we are tempted to act in a way that would show that our hope is in the pleasure of pornography instead of God, we should fear. When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:18, "Flee fornication," he meant, "Fear what it would mean about where your hope is if you commit fornication." It was the same spirit that Jesus had when he said, "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better to enter life with one eye than with two to be cast into hell" (cf. Matthew 5:29). Fear living in ways that betray your lack of satisfaction in God.

This is one crucial missing note in modern Christianity, and one of the main reasons why the church is such a carbon-copy of the world. We think that grace means there's nothing to fear in our behavior. And so the sanction of judgment has no place in our lives. And 1 Peter 1:17 is simply blanked out in our superficial adaptation to culture. But God is gracious and calls us back today to fear the behavior that leads to destruction.

Fear Living as Though Jesus' Blood Is Not Precious

But now notice that on the other side of verse 17 Peter gives another reason for conducting ourselves in fear. He says,

Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed [or ransomed] with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Peter's Reasoning

If I said, "Let's not be anxious about our finances, knowing that God will meet all our needs," what I would mean is, "Don't be anxious, because we know God will meet all our needs."

That's the same reasoning we have in these verses: "Conduct yourselves in fear, knowing . . . "—because you know your were ransomed not with small temporary values like gold and silver, but with an infinite, eternal value, the blood of Jesus. Boiled down: "Fear, because you've been ransomed at infinite cost."

Make sense? It didn't to me at first. But here's where you can grow. You can send your roots deeper and your branches higher. Don't just blank it out. For one thing, it sounds just like Psalm 130:4, "There is forgiveness with you [O God], that you may be feared." Forgiveness leads to fear! In the same way Peter says, "There's an infinite ransom paid, the blood of Jesus, to rescue you from your old ways of life; so conduct yourselves in fear."

In fact what Peter specifically stresses in verses 18 and 19 is the surpassing value and eternal durability of the ransom paid for God's people. He says that gold and silver are "perishable"—they are not durable, they don't last. And he says that the blood of Jesus is "precious"—it's infinitely valuable. So he stresses that the ransom paid for us is permanent and precious.

You'd Think It Would Be the Other Way Around

And the point in connection with verse 17 is: in proportion to the preciousness and the permanence of the ransom we should all the more conduct ourselves with fear. You'd think it would be just the other way around: The more precious and permanent the ransom paid on our behalf, the less we need to fear.

Yes! Yes! And that is gloriously true in one sense: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies! Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died [who paid the infinitely precious and permanent ransom!]" (Romans 8:33–34).

Ransomed for the Purpose of Transformation

But what if Peter means, "Fear conducting yourself as though the ransom were not precious"? I think that's exactly what he means. Because he says in verse 18 that the design of the ransom—the redemption—is to rescue you from your futile way of life. Do you see that? Verse 18: "You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life . . . but by the precious blood of Christ."

The aim and purpose and design of the ransom in this verse is not forgiveness but transformation. The aim in this verse is victory over the power of sin in your everyday life, not forgiveness from the guilt of sin (as true as that is). The reason Jesus shed his infinitely precious blood was to change our conduct (cf. Titus 2:14).

So when Peter says, "Conduct yourselves in fear, knowing that you were ransomed from bad conduct by the blood of Jesus," he means, fear conducting yourself in way that shows that the blood is not precious to you.

If your heart soars with assurance as you meditate on the eternal permanence and infinite preciousness of the ransom Jesus paid with his blood, great! God wants you to soar with assurance. But don't ever twist that assurance into a justification for conduct that proves you don't think the blood is infinitely precious.

Summary

Let me put it finally in a systematic way: God's purpose in the blood of Jesus is our justification and our sanctification. Our pardon and our purity. They cannot be separated (Peter stresses the purity in verse 18).

Therefore, if in our conduct we are tempted to act as though the preciousness and the permanence of the blood of Jesus were impotent to hold us back from sin, then we should fear. Because if our lives bear constant witness to the powerlessness of the blood of Jesus, then Jesus is not really our hope and joy. And we do not belong to him. And that is a fearful prospect.

The sum of the matter is this; hope in the grace of God! And fear not hoping in the grace of God! Fear the behavior that would show you don't trust in the all-satisfying preciousness of the love of Jesus.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so 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 he who fears is not perfected in love.

Verse 17 tells us how to have something everybody wants to have. And verse 18 tells us how to get rid of something everybody wants to get rid of.

Confidence Before God

In verse 17 John tells us how to have confidence or boldness on the day of judgment. And in verse 18 he tells us how to cast fear out of our lives. These are simply positive and negative ways of saying the same thing: getting rid of fear is the negative way of saying become confident.

So the main point of the text is clear: John wants to help us enjoy confidence before God. He does not want us to be paralyzed or depressed by fear of judgment. Nothing would make John happier (1:4) than to produce a generation of Christians who were utterly confident that God would accept them on the judgment day.

Taking the Day of Judgment Seriously

I hope we all take the day of judgment as seriously as John does. I sometimes wonder if we have abandoned real belief in God's judgment and in the torment of hell which our Lord Jesus spoke of so vividly and so often (Matthew 5:22, 29f.; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; 10:15; 11:22–24; 12:36–42; John 5:22–30). The word "hell" (gehenna) is used 12 times in the New Testament—11 of them on the lips of Jesus. And besides that, he spoke of judgment and "the day of judgment" just as John does in 1 John 4:17. For example, Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 10:14f.,

And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

The Lord has warned us so clearly: it is appointed unto man once to die and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). He has spoken vividly of the horror of hell,

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:47–48)

Do We Really Believe in the Horrors of Hell?

One of the reasons I say I wonder if we really believe this is the public zeal with which so many Christians warn against the possibility of a nuclear holocaust and how earnestly they work to avert it. And I ask, "Does the coming holocaust of divine wrath at the final judgment startle us as deeply and mobilize us dramatically?"

The nuclear holocaust is only a possibility; but the holocaust of divine wrath is a biblical certainty. The nuclear holocaust would only snuff out life that is temporary and earthly; but the holocaust of divine wrath will snuff out eternal life and will bring a misery to unbelievers that is worse than any disease caused by nuclear radiation.

So I hope we all take the day of judgment as seriously as John did. I hope that when your heart recoils at the tragedy of a possible nuclear holocaust, you will let that legitimate concern overflow the limits of earthly considerations and take in the tragedy of eternal divine judgment as well. I hope that when you feel an impulse to save the world from the bomb, you will enlarge your heart to long for the eternal salvation of your neighbor and the millions of unreached peoples of the world.

Approaching the Day of Judgment with Confidence

According to 1 John 4:17–18 there is a way to approach the day of judgment with fearless confidence. No one who is willing to follow John's teaching needs to be frightened at the approach of death. None of us who accepts this teaching will have to approach the judgment seat of God with our fingers crossed, wondering if we are going to make it. John wrote this book to give us "confidence for the day of judgment" and to "cast out fear."

How does it happen?

Three Clauses in Verse 17

Notice, there are three clauses in verse 17:

17a, "In this is love perfected with us,"

17b, "that we may have confidence for the day of judgment,"

17c, "because as he is so are we in this world."

It says that the result of having love perfected with us (17a) is confidence for the day of judgment (17b); and it says that the reason perfected love gives confidence is that it shows that we are like Christ (17c).

Let's take them one at a time.

1. What Is Perfected Love?

17a) What is perfected love? "In this is love perfected with us." What does "this" refer to? The words just before it say, "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us." So I would take the "this" to refer to our abiding in love or abiding in God and God's abiding in us—when you abide in love, love is perfected in you.

God's Abiding in Us and Our Abiding in Love

What this means you can see from the connection in 4:12. The same two ideas are both here: God's abiding in us and love being perfected in us. "No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." In other words perfected love refers to God's love in us coming to completion or coming into action as we love each other. "If we love one another . . . his love is perfected in us." So "perfected love" is the love of God expressing itself in our love to each other.

Not Flawless Perfection

It is very important that we understand this, because it is different from what most people think of when they hear the word "perfected." Most people, when they say something has been perfected, mean that it was changed from a state of flawed imperfection into a state of flawless perfection. But the Greek word that John uses (teleioo) does not usually mean that in the New Testament. In the New Testament the word generally means finished, or completed, or accomplished. When something, like a trip or an assignment, attains its goal, it is said to be "perfected."

Other Uses of the Word for "Perfected"

For example the same word is used in John 4:34 where Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." The word "accomplish" here is the same word which in 1 John 4:12 and 17 is translated "perfected." It does not mean that Jesus took the flawed work of God and made it flawless. It means that he took an assignment of God and turned it into action and so completed it (see John 5:36).

In John 19:28 it says that Jesus said, "I thirst" in order to "fulfill" the Scriptures. The word translated "fulfill" is the same as the one translated "perfected" in 1 John 4:12 and 17. It does not mean take a flawed Scripture and make it flawlessly perfect. It means take a Scripture promise and put it into action and so complete it.

James 2:22 is a very important parallel. "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works." The word behind "completed" is the same as the word behind "perfected" in our text. How do works perfect faith? Not by making it flawless faith but by making it active faith. In other words faith is imperfect until it reaches its goal in good works. Then we can speak of it as "perfected" faith—not because it is flawless and beyond the need for improvement, but because it has attained the goal of action.

A journey can be complete or finished even if it is not a flawless journey. That is the way Paul uses the word for "perfect" in Acts 20:24—"If only I might accomplish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus!" He did not mean that he expected to have a flawless ministry. He meant that he fully expected to finish putting into action what the Lord had assigned him to do—even if it was not "perfect" in our usual sense of our word.

God's Love Reaching Its Appointed Goal

Now we come back to 1 John 4:12. It says, "If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us." Following the normal usage of the word, we would take this to mean NOT that our love for each other is a flawless expression of God's love, but that it is God's love being put into action—God's love reaching its appointed goal in practical human love. Perfected love is not just an incomplete idea or emotion or potential in the heart. It is completed, accomplished, put into action—and in that sense "perfected."

So the meaning of the first clause of 1 John 4:17 would go like this: "In this, that is in your love for each other, God's love is put into action and so reaches its appointed goal. It does not remain at the imperfect stage of mere talk, but reaches the stage of action."

So in these verses perfected love is not flawless love. Perfected love is when you don't just talk about the need to share Christ, you do it. It's when you don't just talk about the hungry, you feed them. It's when you don't just talk about floundering new believers, you disciple them. And so on.

2. How Is Confidence Gained for the Day of Judgment?

17b) Now the second clause of the verse says that the result of having love perfected with us is that we have confidence for the day of judgment. "In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment."

By Putting God's Love into Action for Others

In view of what we have seen now about perfected love, how is it that we gain confidence for the day of judgment? Answer: by putting God's love into action for other people. We don't gain confidence because we are sinlessly perfect in the way we love. That would contradict 1:7–10 ("If we say we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves") and we have seen that it is not what the word "perfected" means. We don't gain confidence by being sinlessly perfect. We gain confidence by putting our money where our mouth is.

Love Not in Word or Speech but in Deed and Truth

The flow of thought is very much like 3:18–19. "Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth." That is the same as saying, "Little children, let the love of God be perfected in you. Let the rubber hit the road. Complete your talk with your walk."

And what will be the result in the next verse? The same as in 4:17. "By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us." In other words the way to have confidence before God on the day of judgment is to love each other with the perfected love of God—that is, love that doesn't just talk but turns into deeds. (See also Matthew 5:7; 6:14; 7:1; James 2:13.)

The Recurring Theme of the Book

So this text is not teaching anything contrary to the thrust of the whole book—loving each other is the reassuring evidence that we are truly born of God and bound for eternal life: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren" (3:14). Today's text simply stresses the same thing that 3:18–19 did, namely, that the love which can give us confidence before God is not mere talk but love that has been perfected into action—"not in mere word or speech, but in deed and in truth."

3. Why Does Active Love Give Us Confidence?

17c) The last clause of verse 17 says that the reason active (i.e., perfected) love gives confidence for the day of judgment is that it shows that we are like Jesus. "In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world."

Having the Spirit of Jesus

The assumption is that at the judgment day God won't condemn people who are like his Son. Living a life of active love shows that we have the Spirit of Jesus. It shows we belong to the family of God. And that gives us confidence before God. You can't live at odds with the character of Jesus and then expect to have any confidence when you stand before his Father at the final judgment. But if the current of your life is like his, you can have confidence before his Father.

Seen Throughout the Book

We can see the same sequence of thought in 2:28f.

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of him.

In other words, the way to be sure that you are born of him and that you will have confidence when he comes to judge the world is to abide in him (v. 28) and thus do right as he is righteous (v. 29). "As he is so are we in the world."

1 John 3:2–3 argues the same way:

Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Notice the tremendous confidence of verse 2: we know we will be like him when he comes! That's boldness at the day of judgment! Now what is the proof of this confident hope? Verse 3: "Every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." The proof is the same as in 4:17, "As he is so are we in the world." We share his purity and so assure ourselves that we truly hope in him.

Summary of Verse 17

To sum up verse 17, we can paraphrase it like this: When you love each other with love that is more than just talk, when the love of God reaches its practical goal of action in your life, you will experience a deep and unshakable confidence before God. Much talk of love with few deeds of love destroys assurance. We've all experienced this from time to time. Our conscience condemns us because we think of deeds of love and don't do them.

But if we put our money where our mouth is, or put our time where our tongue is, then we will have a deep sense of the reality of our own faith and will feel confident for the day of judgment, because then we are acting the way Jesus acted.

The Same Thing at Stake in Verse 18

Now for verse 18.

It seems to me that exactly the same thing is at stake in verse 18 as in verse 17—how to get rid of fear about the day of judgment. Verse 17 is positive: how to have confidence for the day of judgment. Verse 18 is negative: how not to have fear for the day of judgment. And both give the same answer: "perfect" or "perfected" love. Verse 18:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.

The Negative of Verse 17

Let's look at the last part first: "He who fears is not perfected in love." This is the exact negative of verse 17. Verse 17 says that when love is perfected with us, we have confidence. Verse 18 says that when we are not perfected in love, we don't have confidence, we fear!

If we have been on the right track so far, we can say that a person "perfected in love" is not a person who loves flawlessly. He is a person who loves "in deed and truth and not just in words." In these verses perfection has to do with completion not flawlessness. "Perfect love" is love that does not die on the vine. It's love that comes to fruition. It's love that goes beyond desire and is completed (i.e., perfected) in a deed.

So the first part of the verse (18) says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment." In other words the reason there is no fear in love is that there is no threat of punishment for being a loving person. When you love someone with real practical deeds, you never hear a warning signal that says, "You're going to get punished for this." Fear is what you feel when you have done something that ought to be punished. But love is never threatened with punishment. So there is no fear in love.

On the contrary, when you love each other with "perfect love" (i.e., with the love of God overflowing and being completed in action)—when you love each other like this, it casts out fear! The way to boldness, the way to confidence and fearlessness, is to walk love not just talk love. Love is perfected not when it is sinlessly flawless but when it passes from talk to walk.

David Livingstone's Challenge

In 1857 when David Livingstone was home from Africa giving a challenge to the students at the University of Cambridge, he tried to convince them that a life of love in the service of others is no ultimate sacrifice. In doing so he gave a beautiful illustration of 1 John 4:17–18 (without realizing it, I suppose). He said,

Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?

Notice the sequence of thought. He says that his labors of love on behalf of the lost have been healthful ACTIVITY. He has the consciousness of DOING GOOD. This is "love perfected"—love in deed and truth, love reaching its goal, love completed in action.

And what was the result for David Livingstone? PEACE OF MIND and A BRIGHT HOPE OF A GLORIOUS DESTINY HEREAFTER! Or to use the words of John: confidence for the day of judgment and a mind without fear.

A Chief Reason Why Many Have Little Confidence

Brothers and sisters, one of the main reasons why so many professing Christians have little confidence with God and little boldness with men is that their lives are not devoted in love to the salvation of the lost and to the glory of God, but instead are devoted (often by sheer default) to providing earthly security and comfort for themselves and their families.

When we try to say that we are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, and yet we do not devote our lives to the eternal good of other people, there is a deep contradiction within that gnaws away at our souls and dissolves our confidence and leaves us feeling weak and inauthentic.

John wants us to discover the secret of David Livingstone—that a life poured out in the labors of love for the eternal good of other people yields a sure consciousness of doing good, a deep peace of mind and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter!

And where will you find the power to do that?

God Loves First in Jesus Christ

I close with verse 19: "As for us, we love because he first loved us." Our acts of love on behalf of others never cause God's love to be initiated towards us. It is always the reverse. God loves first. Then we know and believe the love God has for us (v. 16). Trusting the love that he has for us in Jesus Christ, he abides in us and HIS love overflows into action and is perfected with us. And we have confidence for the day of judgment.

It all begins with the love of God. "We love because he first loved us." If you lack the power to love, look to the cross of Christ and let the love of God for sinners fill you with hope.

The End

Added Note: Confidence and the Forgiveness of Sins

Of course confidence before God MUST include a sense of the forgiveness of our sins through the death of Jesus. The way this relates to active love as the basis of our confidence is as follows.

1 John 1:7 says, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

Here two things are combined to secure our cleansing from sin: one is the blood of Jesus; the other is walking in the light. Only one atones for sin, namely, the blood of Jesus. But it does not atone for everyone. It atones for those who walk in the light.

So our confidence before God on the day of judgment is based on the blood of Jesus as the atoning force that takes away all our sins, AND on a certain kind of "walk"—not because this walk atones for our sins at all, but because it confirms the genuineness of our faith. It confirms that we are in fact savingly related to Christ whose blood cleanses us from all sin.

Walking in the light and being perfected in love are the same thing. Neither atones for sin. Both certify that we are born of God and so attached to Christ in such a way that his blood avails for us.

Fear Not, I Am with You, I Am Your God

"Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, And let the peoples gain new strength; Let them come forward, then let them speak; let us come together for judgment. Who has aroused one from the east whom He calls in righteousness to His feet? He delivers up nations before him, and subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, as the wind-driven chaff with his bow. He pursues them, passing on in safety, by a way he had not been traversing with his feet. Who has performed and accomplished it, calling forth the generations from the beginning? 'I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He.'" The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and have come. Each one helps his neighbor, and says to his brother, "Be strong!" So the craftsman encourages the smelter, and he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good"; and he fastens it with nails, that it should not totter. "But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts, and said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.' Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing, and will perish. You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, those who war with you will be as nothing, and non-existent. For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.'"

My Father's Gift to Me

I bring this series on courage to a close with the text that has served to relieve my fears more often than any other text in the Bible—namely, Isaiah 41:10. I've told you the story before. But since it's Father's Day, I will tell you again, as a kind of tribute to my father—and my heavenly Father.

Heading for Germany

On July 27, 1971, Noël and I boarded a 707 to fly from New York to Munich, Germany. We believed God opened the door for us to go study at the University of Munich. I was 25 years old, had just graduated from Fuller Seminary the month before. God had turned my life around in seminary so that I was eager for studies not for their own sake but for Christ and his church.

I had written in my journal on July 12,

My desire is to throw myself into the church and be employed by the Lord to do what he would in this day and through me. I am not alienated from her. I am in love with her. I want to teach in her and be taught in her. I want to be a channel of life for her and receive life through her. I want now to be about my studies in preparation, and I thank God for these times at home to see some needs—in the church and in myself. My how imperfect and weak I feel at home because I am not as loving as I ought to be. I am a long way off from holiness realized.

The Promise of Isaiah 41:10

Now with that sense of desire to serve the church and that sense of weakness and imperfection I was in New York, 15 days later, ready to leave for Munich for three years. My father couldn't be there to see us off because he was doing the work of an evangelist in another state. My mother and grandmother were there. To give a sense of realism here, let me read from my journal entry two days later.

We picked up mother and MaMohn and headed for New York. At about 2 PM we found Cargo Hanger 67 at Kennedy Airport where we unloaded our 400 pounds of extra luggage and paid $253 to have it shipped on our own flight. Then we went into Manhattan to see the town, and decided it would be preferable to sit in Radio City Music Hall than fight that crazy traffic and heat. From Radio City we called Daddy long distance to say good-bye. I felt so frustrated to make our good-bye appropriate. I came closer to crying there than when I left Mother and MaMohn at Pan Am. He gave me 3 passages to read: Is. 41:10 [today's text]; Is. 50:7; II Tim. 4:1–5. Noël and I read these together before going to bed tonight. My how I love Daddy. I think every time I am thrown into a new situation where I may be afraid or alone my mind turns to the kind of life Daddy has been called to live for almost 30 years. I love him for following through in that call. Oh how I pray that I will have the faith and confidence he has in our Lord for trying times.

For three years in Germany, Isaiah 41:10 was on my lips and in my heart during anxious times more than any other verse. In fact it became so instinctive to say it, that today when my mind is neutral the spinning of the gears is in Isaiah 41:10. I can remember riding my old fashioned, second hand, balloon-tire bike on the bumpy, cobblestone back streets of Munich along the Isar River on the way to a class where I might have to use my German in front of the other students, and saying over and over again to myself, "Fuerchte dich nicht, denn ich bin mit dir; shau dich nicht aenchstlich um, ich bin ja dein Gott. Ich staerke dich, ich helfe dir, ich stuetze dich mit der rechten hand meiner Gerechtigkeit." And seeing God again and again and again come through for me.

Passing It On to My Own Sons

And now I am a father with sons. And I rejoice that I can do for them what my father did for me. So last Wednesday evening just before Benjamin left for boot camp in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, we all sat down in the living room and I said, "There is a special verse I want to send with you, because my father sent it with me. It served me well and it will serve you well. "Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

When I sought for a concluding text for this series on courage and fearlessness and risk-taking, it had to be the one that God has used in my life more than any other to help me through times of stress and fear.

Two Commands Supported by Five Reasons

Let's look at the verse, Isaiah 41:10, and then see how the preceding verses intensify the point of the verse.

There are two commands in the verse not to fear and five pillars of fearlessness. "Fear not" is the first command at the beginning of the verse. And then the second is "do not anxiously look about you" (RSV: "do not be dismayed").

As always in the Bible, there are reasons for the commands. Commands don't hang in the air with no basis in reality. If God commands us to do something, there are good reasons to do it. And power comes from understanding and believing those reasons.

Here there are the five reasons—call them.

The Five Pillars of Fearlessness

"For I am with you"—"Do not fear, for I am with you."

"I am your God"—"Do not look anxiously about you, for I am your God."

"I will strengthen you."

"Surely I will help you."

"Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Restated, the five pillars of fearlessness are:

God is with me;

God is my God;

God will strengthen me;

God will help me;

God will uphold me.

When God calls you to be free from fear as you do evangelism, as you take a test, as you face an interview, as you take a stand against an unjust business practice, as you confront someone with sin in their life, when you leave a secure position and take a risk in a new venture, when you face an operation or a treatment, when you lose a spouse or a friend—when God calls you to be free from fear (to overcome this natural emotion and have peace), he does not leave the command hanging in the air. He puts pillars under it. Five of them. That's the nature of all biblical commands. They come with divine support.

Fear not . . . God is with you;

Fear not . . . God is your God;

Fear not . . . God will strengthen you;

Fear not . . . God will help you;

Fear not . . . God will uphold you.

The Key to Overcoming Fear

The key to overcoming fear is resting on the pillars of the promises of God.

We'll come back to these pillars in a moment. Look with me for a minute at the verses leading up to verse 10 to see how they intensify these promises and strengthen these pillars.

If the key to fearlessness is believing that God is your God and is with you and will strengthen you and help you and uphold you, then knowing the greatness of this God will intensify your faith and your fearlessness.

Four Glimpses of God's Greatness

So look at the Glimpses of God's Greatness that Isaiah gives.

Glimpse #1: The Judge of All the Earth

In Isaiah 41:1 God says, "Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, and let the peoples gain new strength; let them come forward, then let them speak; let us come together for judgment."

Here is a picture of God calling all the coastlands and all the peoples to gird up their strength and come before him for judgment. The God of Isaiah 41:10 is the judge of all the earth. He calls all nations to give an account of their lives and their religions and their thoughts. He is not called to account. He is not on trial. They are. They come into his courtroom. He is the judge of all and will pass sentence on every person. That's the God who is with you to strengthen and help.

Glimpse #2: The Ruler of All Rulers

In Isaiah 41:2–3 Isaiah asks, "Who has aroused one from the east [probably Cyrus the Persian king that God stirred up to come against Babylon] whom He [God] calls in righteousness to His feet? He delivers up nations before him, and subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, as the wind-driven chaff with his bow."

Here is a picture of God rousing a king and leading him in conquest and delivering up nations before him. So the God of Isaiah 41:10 is Ruler of the rulers of history. He controls the affairs of men and nations for his purposes. That's who gives the pillars for fearlessness in Isaiah 41:10.

Glimpse #3: The Uncreated First, Yahweh

In Isaiah 41:4 Isaiah asks, "Who has performed and accomplished it, calling forth the generations from the beginning? 'I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He.'"

Here is a picture of God not only judging the nations and ruling the rulers of the earth but calling all the nations of the earth into being—"calling forth the generations from the beginning." God is the first—he is the absolute reality before all other reality and on which all other reality depends. He is the uncreated first. And he will be there with the last when all is accomplished according to his eternal purpose.

When God answers, "I, the Lord, am the first . . . ," the word "Lord" is "Jehovah" or Yahweh. Franz Delitzsch comments on this verse: "It is the full meaning of the name Jehovah which is unfolded here; for God is called Jehovah as the absolute I, the absolutely free Being, pervading all history, and yet above all history, as He who is Lord of His own absolute being, in revealing which He is purely self-determined; in a word, as the unconditionally free and unchangeably eternal personality" (cited in E.J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, vol. 3, p 76). That's the God of Isaiah 41:10 who strengthens and helps and upholds.

Glimpse #4: The God Who Chose His Own People

In verses 5–7 Isaiah shows us the desperate attempts of the nations to persuade themselves that they and their gods are strong. Verse 5: they are afraid and they come together. Verse 6: they try to encourage each other not to be afraid, and say, "Be strong!" Verse 7: the idol makers who smooth the metal and nail up the idols with nails try to encourage each other and say, "It is good."

In other words, there is a picture of the unrepentant nations desperately trying to convince themselves that their self-wrought gods, made with soldering and nails, are really adequate for their needs.

Over against this desperation of self-reliance and idolatry God says to his people in verses 8–9, "But you [are] Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts, and said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.'"

In verses 1–9 there is a picture of the God who judges the nations, and rules the rulers of the nations, and calls the nations into being, choosing his people for himself, calling them from their hopeless distance from him, and taking them to be his servant.

That is what God has done for us in Christ. He chose us before the foundation of the world. He called us out of darkness and death. And he took us for himself to be his. To make himself our God.

These Glimpses Intensify the Five Pillars

Now all that, I say, intensifies the five pillars of fearlessness in Isaiah 41:10.

The God who judges all the earth and calls the coastlands to give account . . .

The God who rules the rulers of history . . .

The God who calls the nations of earth into being because he is first and last . . .

The God who calls his own people and makes himself their God freely and graciously . . .

That God says to us who believe,

I am your God.

I am with you.

I will strength you.

I will help you.

I will uphold you.

Then Comes the Command—On These Pillars

Therefore—because I am the judge of the nations . . .

Therefore—because I rule the rulers of history . . .

Therefore—because I call nations into being . . .

Therefore—because I choose freely my own . . .

Therefore—because I—this great and sovereign God—

am your God and

am with you and

will strengthen you and

will help you and

will uphold you . . .

Therefore, do not fear.

Or change the image for a moment. Not five pillars. But God in five relations to you expressed in five different prepositions.

I am your God—over you.

I am with you—by your side.

I will strengthen you—from inside of you.

I will help you—all around you from wherever the enemy comes.

I will uphold you—from underneath you.

Over you, by you, inside you, around you, underneath you.

Therefore do not fear.

Our Final Ground for Fearlessness

We come to the end of this series with one great ground for fearlessness—GOD!

I am your God.

I am with you.

I will strengthen you.

I will help you.

I will uphold you.

I call you this morning to stop defining and limiting your future in terms of your past and start defining it in terms of your God.

I call you to recognize that God is greater than your personality. God is greater than your past experiences of timidity. God is greater than your "family of origin." And God calls you to joyful fearlessness.

The crucial factor in your fearless living is not your family but your God.

"Let not your hearts be troubled, BELIEVE IN GOD." Believe in God! Trust God! Let God be your God! Your help. Your strength. He will uphold you with his righteous right hand.

Fear Not, You Worm Jacob!

Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

The main point of this text is that the people of God should not be a fearful people. We should not be a people who are anxious or troubled or worried or fretful about things that threaten our life and happiness: economic adversity, hostile people, satanic opposition, guilt-laden consciences, deteriorating health, and death. The mark of God's people is not incapacitating fear, but rather contrite courageous confidence in God. That's the main point of Isaiah 41:14.

Then there are two subordinate points which clarify for us this experience of fearlessness. First, God's people are in the condition of a worm: "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel." Second, the source of our fearlessness is the promise that God will help us: "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." In other words, freedom from fretting comes not because we are not in the condition of a worm but because God engages all his forces on behalf of worms who take refuge in him.

Satan's Schemes and the Gospel of Self-Esteem

These truths are very important today for three reasons: 1) There are as many temptations to fear today as there were in the 8th century BC. 2) The secular and religious culture in which we live tries to teach us all day long that we are not in the condition of a worm and that all the problems of our life come from thinking that we are. 3) There aren't many segments of the church today where the grace of God is causing tears of joy that the Holy One of Israel should choose to take up residence in sinners like us. Satan has master-minded a phenomenal victory in the American church. By teaching us through a thousand lectures and articles and books that we are too valuable to be called worms, he has made it impossible for us to sing "Amazing Grace" with truly amazed hearts. The more beautiful and valuable man is made to appear, the less amazing it is that God should love him and help him.

The gospel of self-esteem is healing our wounds very lightly. The wings of self-worth that carry us briefly out of fear will quickly weary and drop us in despair some day. For, as John Newton said in his hymn, "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." Where the glory of God's free and sovereign grace pales in the shadow of human self-esteem, there will one day be a great shudder of fear when the Holy One of Israel rouses himself to get glory over the nations in the vindication of his worm Jacob. So the Word of God to his people in Isaiah 41:14 is a remarkably relevant and necessary word for our day. "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel. For I will help you."

Let's focus in turn on these three points: 1) God's people are in the condition of a worm. 2) Nevertheless, they should not be gripped by fear but enjoy great confidence in God. 3) For God, in his free grace toward sinners, will always help those who trust him.

Israel as a Worm

First, then, God's people are in the condition of a worm: "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!" What did God mean when he called his servant, his chosen one, his beloved, a worm? There are two other places in the Bible where this word refers to man. In Job 25:4–6 Bildad says to Job, "How can man be righteous before God? How can he who is born of woman be clean? Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars not clean in his sight; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!" The least we can say from this passage is that one meaning the term "worm" has when applied to man is that he is unclean, unrighteous, unacceptable to God. The image is used probably because worms are dirty not only on the outside, but they are filled with dirt. The other passage is Psalm 22:6 where the psalmist cries out, "I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people." Here the focus is not on the condition of filth but on the way worms are treated: they are scorned by men and despised.

Now when we look at our own text (Isaiah 41:14), there is evidence that both these meanings are in view when God calls Israel a worm. On the one hand, Israel is presently being trodden down in captivity by his enemies. Israel is despised and scorned, but God is going to reverse that situation according to verses 15 and 16. He's going to make the worm a victorious threshing sledge (v. 15). On the other hand, if we ask why Israel is being treated like a worm in captivity, the answer is that Israel acted like a worm in uncleanness. Isaiah 59:1–8 says,

Your iniquities have made a separation between you and God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly, no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adders' eggs, they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one which is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked, no one who goes in them knows peace.

The reason God gave Israel over to captivity to be treated like a worm was because Israel was a worm in his heart. When Isaiah saw the Holy One of Israel, he said (6:5), "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." The heart of Israel was corrupt to the core with pride and arrogance and self-exaltation. The most religious people on earth were an abomination to God because of their haughtiness. Isaiah warns the people in 2:11–17,

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high; against all the cedars of Lebanon lofty and lifted up; against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the haughtiness of men shall be humbled, and the pride of men shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

Once you begin to see that God is God, that it is he that made us, that he alone is to be honored and lifted up in the world, that the magnificence of his power is ten million times greater than spaceship Columbia, that his right and authority over all things is absolute—once you begin to see that God is God, then it becomes very hard to overstate the wickedness of the human heart in which there is one peep of rebellion against the Almighty. It is not an exaggeration when God calls Israel a worm. On the contrary, God must settle for inadequate words to describe the enormity of Israel's sin.

All Are Worms Before God

Now what does that have to do with us? The first thing to stress is that Israel is a lesson book for all the nations. Paul said in Romans 3:19 that the law speaks to those under the law, "so that every mouth might be stopped, and the whole world might be held accountable before God." God has illustrated clearly in the case of Israel what is true with all of us. None is righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (3:23). Everyone is without excuse because God has revealed to all that he alone is to be thanked and glorified (1:20f.). Yet none of us offers God the gratitude and admiration and affection and obedience of which he is worthy. The insult to God of our half-hearted, lukewarm, fickle allegiance is so great when measured against what an infinitely wise and powerful and just and merciful God deserves, that there only remains a "fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire" (Hebrews 10:27). Brothers and sisters, if we felt a tiny fraction of how filthy and loathsome our sinful hearts are to the Holy One of Israel, we could not begin to feel indignant when we are called a worm.

What, then, shall we say about our own day and the dominance of the gospel of self-esteem—the teaching that traces our problems back to the fundamental cause that we don't regard ourselves highly enough? What can you say to the American church where by and large the ultimate sin is no longer failure to honor God but the failure to esteem oneself; where self-abasement not God-abasement is the ultimate evil; and the cry of deliverance from this evil is not, "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" but rather, "O worthy man that I am, would that I could only see it better"? What shall we say?

The first thing I would say is this: Jacob is a worm. And until God has completed the miraculous work of our sanctification and made us perfect, we will still have in us enough of our old corruption to keep us poor in spirit and walking in all lowliness. I do not dispute that Christ has paid for our redemption and that the Holy Spirit has entered our lives and begun to transform us. But what needs to be emphasized is that to take this unimaginable divine condescension, this utterly free and unmerited grace by which God exalts his all-sufficiency, and to turn it into a story whose theme is my worthiness is a travesty of biblical revelation. What's more, it is not a contradiction of the atonement when I, a child of God, feel like a rotten worm for sinning against the God who died for me. I ask you, what should I think about myself when I sin? How should I regard my heart when it does not love mercy, is not aflame with righteousness, feels no compassion for the lost, takes no delight in the Word, recoils from prayer, harbors lustful thoughts, cherishes the praise of men? What adjectives shall I use to describe this heart?

You may say to me: Call it forgiven. And I answer: I do. O, I do. I do. But listen, forgiveness will not cause a ripple in the pool of my emotions unless I smell the stench of corruption in my heart. What is missing in the gospel of self-esteem is a vivid and horrid portrayal of the corruption remaining even in the Christian heart. C.S. Lewis said, "When a man is getting better, he understands more clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less." And John Murray wrote, "As long as sin remains there must be consciousness of it, and thus conviction of our own sinfulness will contain self-abhorrence, confession and the plea of forgiveness and cleansing." I think these men are absolutely right. And therefore the only way that I know how to account for the ease with which Christians accept the summons to self-esteem is that their sin has ceased to be hideous and revolting in the eyes of their hearts. And sin has ceased to be hideous because God is no longer God. He is not the free, all-glorious, sovereign Judge of history whose eyes are too pure to look on evil. Instead he is a vague, sentimental granddaddy who somehow functions to help us find self-worth. When God is dethroned as the Holy One of Israel, the repugnance we once felt at pride is replaced by the repugnance we now feel at being called a worm. But O that God might be God at Bethlehem!

Fear Not

Does this mean that God aims for us to cower before him and be incapacitated by guilt and depression and fear? No. (And this is the second point from our text.) "Fear not, you worm Jacob!" It does mean that we will be broken and contrite in spirit. And this brokenness will permeate and humble all that we do. But it is not the enemy of joy and courage. Jonathan Edwards, in one of my favorite portions, wrote,

All gracious affections that are a sweet odor to Christ, and that fill the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken-hearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is an humble broken-hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is an humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is an humble, brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to an universal lowliness of behavior.

To know that there is corruption left in our hearts and that our feeble affections dishonor the God who loved us does not mean we lie still, wallowing in the mud of guilt. It means we flee to Christ and cling to the cross and take refuge like little chicks under the wings of divine mercy. And there we gain courage to love, not because we regard ourselves highly, but because we regard grace as our all-sufficient supply. The word to worms who will admit their corruption, humble themselves, and take refuge in Jesus is, "Fear not, you worm Jacob."

And the final point of the text gives the reason why, even though we are a worm, we need not fear: "I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." The good news of the Bible is not that we are not worms, but that God helps worms who trust him. Yes, he is working to take away our corruption. But how far has any of us come? The greatest thing about being a Christian pastor is that what I have to offer people is not steps to a positive self-image, but the gracious help of the Holy One of Israel.

The saddest thing of all about the gospel of self-esteem is how small and insipid it makes everything. It takes gospel truths that for centuries have stunned the saints and made them speechless with awe, and reduces them to psychological devices in the service of our puny self-image. I know that the Christians who promote the gospel of self-esteem say the grace of God is the foundation stone. But I ask, is it the pinnacle as well? Is it exalted and lifted up and magnified? Does the gospel of self-esteem leave you exulting and glorifying in the unspeakable riches of God's sovereign grace to sinners like us? Or does it leave you exulting in the discovery that you are really somebody?

My prayer for Bethlehem and my goal in preaching is that we might be a people who humbly and broken-heartedly acknowledge the worm-like corruption remaining in our hearts; but who trust with all our heart that in his grace God is for us because Jesus died for our sins; and who, therefore, are fearless and courageous in the proclamation and demonstration of God's grace in the world.

By John Piper