PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25).

Verse 25 is a great passage. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” Now notice, two things that will trap you. In verse 6, sin will trap you, and number 2, the fear of men will trap you. In other words, those are two things that will hold you, and keep you from doing right. Sin will keep you from the Bible, sin will keep you from church, sin will keep you from witnessing, sin will keep you from being happy, and sin will keep you from receiving Christ and going to heaven.

Well, the fear of man will do the same thing. That's why a lot of people won’t get saved. The fear of man keeps people from confessing Christ, like Peter. The fear of man will get you to make compromises, like Demas. The fear of man causes silence and inactivity from a Christian. And fear of man will hinder the Christian race.

Here are the passages on this, and that is what I really want.

“These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22). The parents were trapped into a position where they weren't at liberty to defend their own son because of the fear of the Jews.

“Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue” (John 12:42). The best thing that can ever happen to you is to be divorced from public opinion, because it will keep you from really doing right. It’s hard to get over that, if you've been raised to be conscious of what people think about you.

First, you have people that are unbelievers, that are afraid to believe for fear that they will be put out of the synagogue; and then the people that did believe, even they were afraid of what others would think. People are afraid to get saved for fear of what others will say to them, and people that are saved are afraid to witness because of what people are going to say about them. And in both cases, that’s just terrible. In both cases, it sends lost men to hell.

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.” You are just going to have to trust God and go ahead and do right.

“Whoso putteth his trust in the LORD,” now, notice this, “shall be safe.”

You see what those people did? They said, “Well, if I do this I'm going to get in trouble, so I won't do it.” Now, they think by doing that, that's safety. No, they put themselves into jeopardy by not doing right. They've been placed in a trap, and there's no liberty there. The place where there is liberty is with the Lord.

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