This sermon emphasizes the perfect love that casts out fear, highlighting the importance of dwelling in God's love and trusting in His power. It delves into the story of David and Goliath, showcasing how faith and trust in God can overcome any challenge or enemy. The sermon also explores the concept of sin not having dominion over believers and the assurance of God's eternal love and protection.

We have known and believed the love that God has to us, God is love, He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God is with Him. Herein is our love laid perfect, that we may have all wisdom in our judgment, because as it is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love trusts without fear, because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. There is no fear in love, but perfect love trusts without fear, because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. In Romans 8 verse 15 we read, For he hath not perceived the spirit of bondage against the fear. In 2nd Timothy 1 verse 7, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind. Now there is a little chapter in the Bible that Christians should go on their knees to ponder over. In our day and age, it is a chapter found in Romans 6, where Paul asks this staggering question to believers. And it is to believers that he asks this question. That is why it is staggering. He says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God proclaimed, How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer than there is? Knowing not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death. And like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in union with life. For if we have been gathered together in the likeness of His death, we should be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, henceforth we should not serve sin, for He is dead, free from sin. Now, if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we should also live with Him. Knowing that Christ was raised from the dead, dies no more, yet has no more dominion over us. For in His dying, we die under sin once, but in His liberty we live under God. Likewise, reckoning the oaths of yourselves to be dead indeed under sin, but alive under God, for Jesus Christ is our Lord. Dead like sin, therefore, reigns no more, for the body of sin is destroyed, and the dust thereof. Now you yield your members and instruments of unrighteousness under sin, but yield yourselves under God, and your members and instruments of righteousness under God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are under the law and the grace. What, then, shall be sin, because ye are under the law and the grace? God forbid! Knowing not that to whom He yielded His servants to obey Him, servants He are, to whom He obeyed for the sin and the death, and for the healing, and for the righteousness. But God, be thankful that ye were servants of sin, that ye have obeyed from the heart that call of God to whom He has delivered you, being then made free from sin, and ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak up for the memory of men, because ye have been servants of your flesh. For as ye have used your members' servants to unto meanness, unto iniquity, unto iniquity, even so now ye will be members' servants to righteousness, unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit did ye in those things which ye now shall eat? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruits unto holiness, and the end of an after-life. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now let us leave this sobering chapter and pause with the great doctrine and work of Romans. To look at a portion of God's Word that for thousands of years has endured in the children, in the young people, the saints, the warriors, the pharisees. The story of David and Goliath found in 1 Samuel 17, verse 32. Here is David in Egypt, in Israel. A famous scene, many chapters between the Philistines, the enemies of the people of God, and the Israelites. And this historic occasion, most historic for all eternity, stands with the people of God, the armies of God's people, with Saul as their king. And the other side, this large valley, stands with the enemies of God's people, the Philistines, the armies of the Philistines, with Goliath as their champion. An instrument of the devil, sent by Satan to take the eyes of God's people off from God. For if he can do that to us collectively, individually, as a mission, as a church, as a nation, he is worth the battle. And so, knowing us through and through, whether individually what to place before us, whether collectively of a mission what to place before us in our circumstances, whether nationally, to get our eyes off from God is all he needs to do to win the battle. And it worked. The instrument that the devil sent, the instrument that accomplished the purpose for which it was sent, which every man had the right to take an oath from God, who had placed a mission to the devil from the king to the last man of the army. No one had faith in God. No one had anything but fear. But God knew that there was a beauty to the Bible for us in it, called David. A shepherd boy who had cultivated in his God-fearing home, in the quietness and the awe of the beauty of God's nature, as he looked out to his father's sheep. God knew that this youth would cultivate that perfect trust, a perfect love which literally cast out all fear that God had in him, for anything the devil would place in his circumstances. And God brought this youth under the seal of apocryphal. Before the instrument of the devil, the enemies of God's people, before the armies of God's people, before Saul. And we read in verse 32, And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight against Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth. And he, a man of war, comes in. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep. And there came a lion, and there was a bear, and he took the lamb out of the flock. And I went and asked him to smote him with a little of his blood. And when he rose against me, I caught him by the beard and smote him and slew him. David said, Lord, I was a lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and I took all the bear he was giving me out of the hand of the spirit of the lion. And Saul said unto David, God, and the Lord, with which he is armed, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head, also he armed him with a coat of mail, and David drew his sword upon his arm, and he slinged it over to the other group. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with thee, for I have another group with me. And David put them off him. And he took his staff out of his hand, and he chosen five smooth stones out of the group. And he put them in a shepherd's bag that he had, and he had a script, and he slinged it in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came up, and he drew near unto David, and the man who was there with Saul went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, and rugged, and a bearish countryman. And the Philistine said to David, O my God, that thou comest to me with stains. And the Philistine cursed David by his wrath. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh as a prowl to the end of the beasts of the earth. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and a spear, and a shield. But I come to thee in the name of the Lord and host, the God of the army and division, and the God of the fight. This day will the Lord be with you, my friend. And I will give you the strike, and you take thy death for me. And I will give you the carcasses of the host of the Philistine, just there to the prowl to the end of the wild beasts of the earth. And all the earth may know that there is a God in heaven. And all the assembly shall know that the Lord's name is not with sword, but with spear. for the Baptist is the Lord, and he will give you into our house." And he came to pass through the Philistine walls and came to him out to eat. David faced him right toward the Philistine. And David put his hand on his back and put against his shoulder. And he was slamming, and he smoked the Philistine into his forehead, and the stone stung into his forehead. And he felt what his face should feel. So David prepared for the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he smoked the Philistine's throat. And there were no swords in the hands of David, for David ran and stood upon the Philistine with his sword, and Judah had a seat around his throat, and cut him to death with it. And when the Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled. And the head of Israel and Judah rose and shouted in pursuit of the Philistine. Oh, how faith spread like fire amongst the people of God. If anyone, even as a youth, dares to look up and to place in God that perfect trust, a perfect love that literally cast out any fear that God could ever cast out. Oh, the word of God spoke to me. When I think that out of the heart of the shepherd, out of the heart of the shepherd came these words of perfect love that cast out all fear. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He made me to lie down in green pastures. He made me beside the still waters. He restored my song. He made me in the power of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for God is my shepherd. My Lord and Thyself, they come. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my hands. Thou runnest my head with wine. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In the song of perfect love that cast out all fear. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. How can I fear God if Thou art with me? I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee. Yea, though I am with Thee, and with Thee, and with Thee. In no danger to you, it was not the will of God, but the people of God, to yield themselves so as to obey the enemy, which was being suggested through the instrument of death. He knew that not God's will was the energy of rain, nor weather. To have to make it over him. And so he went with the perfect trust in God, that God wouldn't fail him. It cast out any fear, knowing the sins of the will of God. And you and I, we name the name of Jesus. You know it's not God's will. There is not sin there for rain, nor water of bondage, nor pain, nor lust thereof. Neither do you, if you remember the instrument of unrighteousness of the sinner. Did you just know that the God who remembered the instrument of righteousness of the God for sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin shall not have dominion over you. But how many of us sit here today with all we see and say, and sin reigns in your mortal body. Sin has dominion over you. You know what it is to be in your hand of the instrument of unrighteousness of the sinner. You know what it is to be in your lips and your tongue of the instrument of unrighteousness of the sinner. You know what it is to be in your ears, the instrument of unrighteousness of the sinner. Your eyes, the instrument of unrighteousness of the sinner. And God knows what part of your body and being you hear in this instrument of unrighteousness of the sinner. Though you name the name of Jesus. You know David refused the almanac of his king. That was something to do in those days. I don't know how Saul possibly could have expected anybody to have faith in his almanac. He didn't have any faith. He must have been in awful pain. But David refused the almanac of his king because he trusted only in his God. That's why Paul, the letter to the Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 says, Finally my brethren, be strong and immortal in the power of this might. Put on the whole almanac of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in my place. When it will take unto you the whole almanac of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your voice heard about the truth, and having on the flesh faith of righteousness, and your feet sharp with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always with all prayer, and supplication in spirit, and watching there unto it all, perseverance and supplication for all things. O they that give up all, that Paul speaks of above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Do you believe that? Go answer to God, who knows you. Do you believe that through faith God, by his grace and spirit, can work within your heart, if you would seek him in a lot, and obey all his word called you to be? You can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. My good servant, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. Do you believe that? That ye sin not. Oh, how many people rush through the next part of the verse to depend the whole of their life, to depend the whole of their doctrine. And yet, in humanity, we have an evidence that the Father, Jesus Christ, is righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, not for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. He is the propitiation, the way to God's conversion for our sins, Christians, sinners. Oh, we thank God for those words. But do you know that anybody with any honesty at all, in prayer or reading, is one who can read the scriptures, you can deny anybody, but your soul, your prayer, your life of prayer, your reading the scriptures, you can't deny anything that's true. It can't bypass you. My good servant, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And to these people, who are living such a way, God says, thank you. If you, my child, were never to walk such a walk in honesty before a man of God, on your own to the celestial city, with all the power of hell against you, because of the stand you're making, if you do fall in this magnificent walk of faith, it's not the end. I don't trust you, son. I don't know you understand, nobody would have brought it on you. God doesn't understand, nobody would have brought it on you. He said to us, just you fall, just you fall, and I'll smash you. You know, it stands under a stand of love. There was such a love that, Lord Jesus, if only you would lose all these fears. Fears of all the dead in me, all eternal past, if only you'd get rid of it. Fears of me casting you aside, you're my child. If only you'd lose all this ridiculous fear under all these promises that I've held out to you, that you'll read again and again. If only you'd take them to heart. And place it in me a perfect love. I write this thing that you say, but if it's not the end, if you do, I lift you up. If you keep short a conscience, make it that you're real, it applies to your life. In Romans, verse 31, Paul asks, what shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered not for his own house, and not put him also free, he giveth all things. Who shall lay end to the charge of God today? It is God who shall justify it. Who is he that can dare it? It is Christ, that died, gave rise, and is risen again, who did it at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sorrow? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed, or all the day long we are comforted, as sheep to the sloth. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heaven, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God is in him, here in his arms, God made perfect, that we may have hope in the day of justice, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, this love God expects of you. If lost from you, there is no fear in love. My perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torn it deep that fear is not made perfect in love. Listen to a song. The music was written by John Sebastian Bach, and the words by Martin Luther. A mighty fortress is our God. A good work never fails. Our helper, we are made of love. Our water is prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. For his craft and power are great.