Text 1322, 114 rader
Skriven 2006-09-09 06:27:10 av Bob Hoffman (8:8/2)
Ärende: Fear Has Its Place
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Faith's Checkbook  

Charles H. Spurgeon
Sep 8, 2006

 

September 9 




Fear Has Its Place 

"Happy is the man that feareth alway" (Proverbs 28:14). 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning and the foundation of all true religion.
Without a solemn awe and reverence of God there is no foothold for the more
brilliant virtues. He whose soul does not worship will never live in holiness. 

He is happy who feels a jealous fear of doing wrong. Holy fear looks not only
before it leaps, but even before it moves. It is afraid of error, afraid of
neglecting duty, afraid of committing sin. It fears ill company, loose talk,
and questionable policy. This does not make a man wretched, but it brings him
happiness. The watchful sentinel is happier than the soldier who sleeps at his
post. He who foreseeth evil and escapes it is happier than he who walks
carelessly on and is destroyed. 

Fear of God is a quiet grace which leads a man along a choice road, of which it
is written, "No lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up
thereon." Fear of the very appearance of evil is a purifying principle, which
enables a man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to keep his garments
unspotted from the world. Solomon had tried both worldliness and holy fear: in
the one he found vanity, in the other happiness. Let us not repeat his trial
but abide by his verdict. 

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The old man                                



The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,  “INWARD CONFLICTSö 

Why does God not remove the old sinful nature out of the Christian? 

SIN REMAINING IN THE BELIEVER-- 
drives him humbly to confess his own nothingness,  excludes all boasting from
his tongue,  compels him to trust in his God, 
takes away from him his propensity to trust in himself,  leads him to value the
precious blood which cleanses him,  to prize the Holy Spirit who sanctifies
him,  to rejoice in the faithfulness, and patience,  of God who still continues
to be gracious to him. 

And oh! what songs will the man of God sing when he gets to heaven!  How much
sweeter will be the music, because of the conflict!  How much more glorious the
victory, because of the warfare! 

If I could be totally delivered from sin, root and branch, I  certainly would;
but yet am I conscious that no Christian would  glorify God so much in heaven
as he now does, if there were not  sin to be contended with. A creature that
could not sin, could  scarcely show forth much of the praise of God by its
holiness;  but that the creature can sin, nay, that there is a strong  drawing
towards sin, and yet the divine grace keeps a man from  it, and sanctifies him
even to perfection, why this will make  the song come swelling up of
“Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah!ö 

If no adversaries had been fought, then no victories could have  been won; if
there were no temptations for us to struggle with,  then there would have been
no elbow-room for our faith, and no  power for the display of the bare arm of
God. 

Many believers would have grown too proud to be borne with,  if some infirmity
had not plucked the plume from their helmets  and made them mourn with
brokenness of heart before God. 

God can bring good out of evil by his overruling grace,  while on the other
hand our good works have often been  the greatest curse we have ever had! 

Good works have puffed us up, and so have led us into pride;  while our sins,
though pulling us down, have, through almighty  grace, led us to work for
eternity. 



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