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The Book of Second Timothy:
Message Six
By Dr. Michael
Guido, D.D.
One day John
Wesley preached the gospel to a turbulent crowd at an
outdoor meeting. He said, "Many of the people
did their best to disturb the meeting. They tried to
drive a herd of cows into the crowd, but without
success. Then they began to throw stones - showers of
them. One of them struck me between the eyes. I wiped
away the blood, and went right on, declaring that God
has given to them that believe, not the spirit of
fear, 'but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind.'"
Fear doesn't come
from God, only faith. When there's fear, there's no
faith; when there's faith, there's no fear. Now the
two greatest foes to man are fear of the past and
fear of the future. Fear of the past centers around
transgressions. Without reading it in the Bible, you
know that "your sins will find you out."
How many men have said, "I deserve this and
worse!" Men without God live in a never-buried
fear of the past. But men with faith in God live in
peace because their past has been buried. They say
with the sacred writer, "Thou hast cast all my
sins behind Thy back." No wonder the Psalmist
said, "Blessed is he whose sin is covered."
Fear in the future centers around troubles. The Bible
says, "Man that is born of a woman is of few
days, and full of trouble." What you do with
your trouble depends on whether or not you have faith
in the Lord. A kettle of water was boiling over a
campfire one day. A bear wandered into the camp and
seized the kettle. Instead of dropping it, he hugged
it to himself. That's his only known method of
defense. Men with fear hug their troubles to
themselves, but men with faith in the Lord hand their
troubles over to Him. Yes, God hasn't given us the
spirit of fear!
But He has given
us, says the Bible, the spirit of "power."
Our great God is all-powerful and never-failing. He
can bring to pass whatever He pleases, and it pleases
Him for us to triumph over all our temptations. When
He endows a man with pardon, He endues him with
power. That's why the apostle Paul said, "I am
strong for all things in the One who constantly
infuses strength into me." There was an old man
who received the Lord Jesus as his Savior. He had
been a mean man, rough and rowdy. But when he became
a Christian everyone saw a change in him, even his
cat. One day after his conversion he went to town. As
he was walking along the street, he was happy in
heart, singing softly to himself, and thinking about
the Lord. Suddenly he smelled the fumes coming out of
the bar. He had never gone by before. He had always
gone in. He was about to become frightened, but then
he remembered that his all-powerful Savior was at his
side. And he testified, "I said, 'Jesus, you'll
have to come along and help me get by, I never can by
myself.'" And he added, "He came, and we
went by, and we've been going by ever since."
God has given us,
says the Bible, the spirit of "love." It's
easy to love the lovely, but hard to love the
loveless; it's easy to love your friends, but hard to
love your foes; it's easy to love those who please
you, but hard to love those who persecute you; it's
easy to love those who are kind to you, but hard to
love those who are cruel to you. How can one do it?
In his own spirit? Oh, no. In the Lord's. The only
way you can have the love of God in your life is by
having the God of love in your heart. There was an
African who had a terrible temper. He was known for
his meanness. But all of a sudden he had only love in
his heart for his foes as well as his friends.
"How can you love your enemies?" he was
asked. "The love of Christ is now in my
blood," he answered. You see, he had become a
partaker of the "divine nature."
God has given us,
says the Bible, the spirit of "a sound
mind." This expression suggests wisdom,
understanding and spiritual intelligence. It
signifies the control of the mind, the will and the
emotions. How? He who is a servant of the Holy Spirit
is a master of himself. Prayed an old man, "O
God, help me to understand that you're not going to
let anything happen that You and I together can't
handle." Yes, "I can do all things through
Christ who keeps on pouring His power into me."
copyright 2000 Guido Evangelistic
Association
All Scripture verses are
quoted from the New King James Version.
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This series of messages on the
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Sower." They are collected and reprinted here
for your enjoyment and spiritual edification.
