Needless Fears! - Charles Spurgeon Audio Sermons

needless fears this message was first preached on June 11th in the year of 1874 by charles haddon spurgeon our text for this morning comes from the book of isaiah isaiah chapter 51 verses 12 and 13 Isaiah 51 verses 12 and 13 who are you who are you that live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction where is the wrath of the oppressor where is the wrath of the oppressor things often influence us out of proportion to their value because of their newness for instance the moon is a very small insignificant body compared with the Sun yet it has far more influence over the tides and many other matters in the world than the Sun hand simply because it is so much closer to the earth than the Sun is the life that is to come is infinitely more important than the life that now is and I hope that in our innermost hearts we consider that the things that are seen in temporal are mere trifles compared with the things which are not seen and eternal yet it often happens that the less important matters have a greater influence over us than those which are far more important simply because the things of the earth are so much more closer to us heaven is infinitely more to be desired than any joy on earth yet it seems so far and therefore these fleeting Joy's here on earth may give us greater present comfort the wrath of God is far more to be dreaded than the anger of man yet sometimes our frown or a review from a fellow creature will have more effect upon our minds than the thought of the anger of God this is because the one appears to be removed while being in this body of flesh we are so near to the other now beloved it will sometimes happen that a matter which is scarcely worthy of a thought a thought of an immortal spirit will trouble and worry us from day to day there is some oppressor as the text puts it whom we dread and continually fear yet we forget the Almighty God the Almighty God who is on our side who is stronger than all the oppressors who have ever lived and who has all people and all things under his control the reason why we act this way is because we think of God as if he were follow while we can see the oppressor with our eye and we can hear with our ears his threatening word I want this morning to be the means in the hands of God of turning the thoughts of his people away turning the thoughts of his people away from the distress of the present she's a joy and comfort which no more remote still be more powerful over the mind and heart because of the real inherent greatness first this morning I want to speak up on this point that many fears which are experienced by Christian men and women are really groundless many fears which are experienced by Christian men and women are really groundless our text says you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction but where is the wrath of the oppressor the probable meaning of this verse is that the oppressor never came so those living in fear never did feel the full force of his fury and in like manner many of God's people are constantly under apprehensions of calamities which will never occur to them and they suffer far more in merely dreading them than they would have to endure that they actually came upon them in their imagination there are rivers in their way and they are anxious to know how they shall wade through them or swim across them there are no such rivers in existence but they are agitated and distressed about them an old proverb says don't cross the bridge till you come to it but these timid people are continually crossing bridges that only exist in their foolish fantasies they stab themselves with imaginary daggers they starve themselves an imaginary famine and even bury themselves in imaginary graves we are such strange creatures that we probably suffer more under blows which never fall upon us than we do under those which do actually come the rod of God does not strike us as sharply as the rod of our own imagination does our groundless fears are our cheap tormentors and when we are able to abolish our self-infliction all the worries of the world become light and easy however it is a pity it is a real pity that Christians who have the gift of faith in Christ given to them should fall into so guilty and at the same time so painful a habit has this appearing the oppressor who does not come and who will never come some people are very troubled by the fear of man some people are very troubled by the fear of man this is exactly the case mentioned in our text the wrath of the oppressor he was a very oppressive man hard unfeeling crowd strong exactly and they were afraid of him in addition to this he must have been a person of impulsive temper one with whom you could not reason and he was so passionate that they were not merely afraid of the oppressor but of the wrath of the oppressor he is the kind of person whom you don't know how to meet for how to escape from him if you run away from him he will pursue you in his wrath if you remain quiet your patience will not make him quiet and if you resist him his wrath will be so much the greater that appears to have been the character of the oppressor feared by those whom the Lord was reasoning with at the time and we have known believers who have been afraid of what a certain powerful person might do if they acted as their conscience told them they ought to act he would have vicked them from their property or he would cause them to lose their jobs as a result of his powerful influence perhaps the fearful one is some young person who has a relative who hates religion and what this powerful relative may do they can't imagine or the oppressor is an arbitrary employer and if his employees don't obey his orders exactly even though those orders happen to be wrong they will lose their jobs they may be out of work for months they and their children may then go without food they imagine a long series of trials and troubles that will come upon them because of the wrath of the oppressor now sometimes there is a reason for this kind of fear for men sometimes act in a very intimidating manner to others and the very persons who talk most about being liberal in their views are generally the greatest persecutors if I must have a religious enemy let me have a profession of a bigot but not one of those free thinkers or liberal theologians as they are called for there is nobody who can hate like they can and these lovers of liberal mindedness who have no Creed at all they think it is their special duty to be particularly contentious those who have some degree of principle there is no doubt that there are still trials of cruel mockings to be borne by those who are true to Christ the cold shoulder is given in our society another company harsh words are used and coarse jokes are made Christians must expect to bear the opposition of men and women it has always been this way and it will always be if you turn from the ways of the world and basically accuse the world of being wrong the world will resent it if you belong to the world it would love you as its own as it is you do not belong to the world her Christ has chosen us out of the world that is why the world hates but in the end is that there a great deal more attention given to this matter than there should be for where is the wrath of the oppressor I have known young Christians afraid of someone and thus are afraid to share the convicting truths of the scripture and when they finally build up enough courage to do so they have been surprised that the person they expected to oppose them has been quite favorable to them a wife has been afraid to mention to her husband that she desires to unite with the local church but when he hears of it he thinks that he too will go and hear the minister I remember a man and his wife who came to join our church they were each afraid to tell the other what they plan to do and when they met each other on the night that they were present with the other new member candidates they were greatly surprised to find out that instead of having any reason to be afraid of one another they had the utmost cause to rejoice in one another they said that it was like a new marriage to them when each found the other to be in Christ Jesus yet each of them had thought the other to be so strongly opposed so strongly opposed to Christianity that they adopt dared to mention their conversion until thus they made their mutual discovery perhaps they're friends you have no more need to be afraid than they had go on and the giant that stands in your way may turn out to be only a shadow or if he really is a giant God will help you to fight against him and make you more than a conqueror some have a fear of another kind not of any opposition to themselves but they are afraid for the church afraid for the church and the truth it teaches being utterly destroyed by the opposition of wicked men and women they are afraid for the church and the truth that it teaches being utterly destroyed by the opposition of wicked men and women haven't you noticed many times a kind of panic going through the churches because of some supposed discovery in science for some new doctrinal error that has appeared one Christian meets another and begins trembling as he talks about what was going to happen he says oh the old days were so much better than these and here is a new danger how are we going to fight against it it was anxiously asked a few years ago how are we going to meet these new discoveries of geology yet we hardly ever hear about them now or if we do we don't trouble ourselves about them at that time a dr. Cole ENSO has made certain calculations which were very terrifying to timid people and Huxley tried to prove that we had descended or ascended from monkey but who cares about their theories now yet I have met with nervous people who greatly feared the wrath of this tyrant science which was to utterly destroy us but has no effect whatever against the truth today as you are well aware it is the belief of a great many people that owing to the spread of ritualism in the church that the candle that Latimer lit will be blown out and we shall all be in the dark or at least shall have nothing better than the ceremonial candles of the Roman Catholic Church to light up I constantly receive articles that prophesy the most terrible time according to them some of us will no doubt be burned alive at the stake well I know that the devil can blow very hard but I don't believe that he can blow out the candle that God lights much less than he can blow out the bright sunshine of the gospel which is burned on now for hundreds and hundreds of years blow devil blow as hard as you can but you will never be able to blow out this light or it will still shine on to the end of time oh you may blow in a cloud or two which partially obscures the light but the light itself will be as bright as ever it may be that in the place where you live there has arisen a new doctrinal error somebody has discovered that men are nothing but a species of large eggs not only those who believe in Christ are immortal all the rest will die out eventually annihilation is to be their doom many are dreadfully frightened by that doctrine but I believe it is too contemptible a doctrine to alarm anybody anybody who studies the Scriptures it is a very pretty toy and many will play with it but after a while there will come along another pretty toy and they will play with that and so it will be Ito Christ Himself comes and breaks up all the toys and brings his church back to the grand old truth which will stand firm in spite of all the assault of men or demons but you and I needn't fear beloved because of any of these things what is there after all to cause us to worry or tremble for the Church of the Living God nothing at all just nothing at all never let any member of this church start whining in this way and saying that the gospel will die out the heavens and the earth will pass away but the word of the Lord shall endure forever that which the Lord has declared in his blessed book shall stand firm throughout all of eternity another fear which sometimes comes over truly godly people is that perhaps in time they will lose their salvation and perish forever another fear which sometimes comes over truly godly people is that perhaps in time they will lose their salvation and perish forever there may come a temptation which will find the Christians weak point and conquer them their ship through life has sailed well up until now though not without a few rough seas and storms but perhaps it will strike a rock and be utterly broken to pieces they know how weak and frail they are and how many temptations surround them up treacherous and cunning the devil is how compelling the world is with its many enticement King David feared that he would perish one day at the hand of Saul and those fearful souls as they passed into some new phase of life or encounter some new trial are terrified for fear that the day may come when grace would not be sufficient for their needs and they would come to a wretched end I know this fear who among us has not felt it who among us can honestly examine his own heart and not feeling yet dear friends there is really nothing in it to trouble the true child of God if our Christianity is a religion of our own making it will perish and the sooner it goes the better but if our religion is truly from God we know that he never takes back what he gives and that if he has begun his good work enough by gray he will never leave it unfinished if the Covenant God made with us was based upon works it would fail if it depended upon us it would surely fail but if it is the everlasting covenant arranged and secured in every part then it can never fail if the promise is the promise of God who cannot lie then he will surely keep his promise to the very end therefore we ought not to be burdened with this anxiety but simply go on in our daily walk being watchful with humble dependence upon the preserving power of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall find that we shall get safely into heaven in the end we have known some - who have been afflicted with a fear of poverty fear that poverty would come upon them as a result of a loss of income we have known some - who have been afflicted with the fear of poverty fear that poverty will come upon them as a result of a loss of income one says the giant of poverty will surely seize me I don't have enough money put away to furnish me with an adequate living I have known some people who even dread not having enough money for their own funeral as if that would be a concern of theirs at that time the living will surely take care to bury the dead I have known others who say if I were to lose my job if such and such a thing were to happen if so and so were to die what would I do off we prayed over all the ifs that we can imagine we shall certainly never be without apprehension but where is your dependence Christians where is your dependence for this world have you placed it upon man that I don't wonder that you're full of fear but why don't you simply trust your body where you trusted your soul if you have trusted Jesus to be the savior of your immortal spirit can't you also trust him he'd be the provider for this poor flesh which eventually will perish God feeds the Ravens won't he feed you up until this very moment the creator and sustainer of the universe has never failed you for the billions of living creatures have received from his hand all that they have required then is he likely to forget you he has never done so yet your food has been given to you your water has been sure why should he change his practice and let his own dear child starve oh but you say the brook that Elijah depended on for water dried up yes but when that drip dried up God sent his servant Elijah to Zarephath where there was a widow who would provide food and water for him when one door shuts another open and if one well goes dry the water bubbles up somewhere help the means may change but the god of the means never changes he will supply your knees live wherever he places you do your duty obey his will and he will not fail you but bring you safely to the place where you will never fear again another fear is the fear of death another fear is the fear of death some even among God's people try hard not to think of dying it is a dreary requirement with them that they must die and they needlessly threat and trouble themselves about it but beloved if we had perfect peace with God we would not fear dying I have known some who had thought that they would rather be taken to heaven like Elijah was in a chariot of fire being pulled by horses of fire but I wouldn't why we're out walking tomorrow evening and I thought horses of fire and Chariots of Fire standing ready to take me up I would feel a great more fearful about getting into a fiery chariot than going home to my bed and lying down to die if my Lord and Master shall choose to let me live until he comes and so prevent my death his will be done but the Holy Spirit says blessed blessed are the dead who die in the Lord and so let us be content with that blessedness but there is a fear of death in some Christians mind and they cannot always shake it off yet beloved there is nothing in it if you are in Christ you will never know anything about dying if you are in Christ you will never know anything about dying I don't believe that Christians feel anything in death if there are pain as there often are they are not the pains of dying but of living death and all their paintings they shut their eyes on earth and open them in heaven they have shaken off the burdensome clay of this mortal body and found themselves disembodied in an instant before the throne of the Most High there's a wait until the comfort of the Resurrection shall sound and they shall put on their bodies once again transformed and glorified like the body of their Lord get rid of that fear of death beloved what is not becoming in a Christian the believers heart should be so focused on the Lord Jesus Christ who is the resurrection in the life that they should lead themselves in their heavenly father's hands to live or die or to wait till the Lord comes whatever is the will of the Lord my suck Observation this morning is this there are some fears which would die immediately if we dare to question them there are some fears which would die immediately if we only dared to question them did you notice that our text is a question who are you that live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction for where is the wrath of the oppressor my dear friend did you ever question your fears yes I mean you miss despondency over there and you mister much afraid did you ever question your fears if not question them right now put them through the interrogation suppose it is the Church of our Living God that is afraid to be oppressor let the church ask where is the oppressor of which he need to be afraid suppose it is the Church the Church of our Living God that is afraid to be oppressor son let the church ask where is the oppressor of which she needed to be afraid is it doctrinal error well the church at one time was overrun with a false doctrine of Arianism that denied that Jesus was truly gone and it did seem as if the heretics had killed the doctrine of the deity of Christ but the Lord was pleased to raise up his valiant servant Athanasius and very soon Arianism was defeated the Church of our precious Christ scarcely remembers or understands the scars of all the conflicts to which he has passed those which threatened to destroy her have never really injured her rather she has come out of the furnace all the more pure as for persecution has it not been commonly proved that the more the Saints have been persecuted the more they have prospered and that the blood of the martyrs have been the seed of the church suppose there should come again the days when Christians will be martyred suppose there should come again days of heresy well the church has had such days before yet she has survived them all the grand old ship has been in many hurricanes and storms before now yet she still sails steady and true to her final destination therefore why should she be so afraid now ask the question again where is the wrath of the oppressor and the answer comes it is under the control of God even Satan our fiercest foe was created by God God rules over Satan God does with him just as he pleases then as to that poverty of which you are afraid it will not come unless God permits it and if it does come the Lord can alleviate it you are afraid that you will lose a very dear child but you will not lose her unless the Lord takes her you are fretting because you fear that a special friend of yours will soon be taken away but he cannot be taken away until the Lord takes him what are you afraid of is it your own death well then learn to sing that great old hymn by John Ryland plagues and death around me fly Chile command I cannot die not a single arrow can hit so the God of love teach dead again the Lord asked us where is the wrath of the oppressor some man oppresses you well he shall die perhaps soon the trouble that now upsets you will soon be gone in the twinkling of an eye on if not soon so far as this life is concerned yet when you get to heaven and that will not be long how short a time where your trial seemed to have lasted our light and momentary troubles says the Apostle are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all you fret about your trouble and continually worry yourself about it but our tack seems to ask you where is it it is nothing but a meteor that flashes across the sky and is gone ask your trouble such questions as these and they will all soon vanish I will ask you a few more questions you have fears with regard to a great trouble that threatens you well will it separate you from the love of Christ let me ask you a few more questions you have fears with regard to a great trouble that threatens you well will it separate you from the love of Christ if you cannot answer that question let Paul answer it for you I am convinced he said that neither death nor life neither Angels nor demons neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord you say that your enemies slander you but will Christ believe them they are trying to destroy your good name and reputation but will your Lord think any less of you will he be deceived by their lies you say that your friends are forsaking you but will they take Jesus away make him forsake you you say that your enemies are doing everything they can to destroy you but can they destroy the divine promises you say that your enemies are doing everything they can to destroy you but can they destroy the divine promises the Lord has promised to give his sheep eternal life can they take that promise from you and make it of no value they may fight against you but can they keep you out of heaven they may threaten you but can they make the covenant of grace to be of no effect since eternal things are safe we can be content to let other things come or go just as God will again let me ask can anyone do anything to you which God does not permit and if God permits it can any real harm come to you can anyone do anything to you which God does not permit and if God permits it can any real harm come to you God's Word says who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to his purpose then how can anything work against you if you are really the Lord can anyone curse those whom God blesses are you like those foolish persons who are afraid of a witch's curse or up some spell that the wicked may cast over you even Balaam said there is no sorcery that can succeed against Jacob no divination that can affect Israel Bale AK might summon Balaam to his aid and the two together might scan and look on Israel and wish that they could curse them but they cannot curse those whom God has blessed if all the demons in Hell could fill your house and seek to injure you there is no need for you to fear or tremble more than martin luther did when his friends were afraid for him to go to go and be examined by the roman catholic leaders who were trying to get him to recant but Luther said to his friends he said this if there were as many Devils there as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses I would face them all in the name of God and you may say the same if all the armies of the earth came against you and all the demons in Hell had come up to join with the world against you you could still say the Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge and you could charge them in the name of the Most High and cause all of them to flee and defeat because the one who is in you is greater than the ones who are against you now lastly my dear brothers and sisters in Christ if these fears are groundless and if a few questions will remove them I appeal to you who are fearful to cry out to God to deliver you from the state of bondage if these fears are groundless and if a few questions will remove them I appeal to you appeal to you are fearful to cry out to God to deliver you from the state of bondage if there is no basis for your fears what is the use of tormenting yourself for no reason at all and if God is indeed with you don't you dishonor him by your apprehensions and your fears if there is no basis for your fears what is the use of tormenting yourself for no reason at all and if God is indeed with you don't you just honor him by your apprehensions and your fears what would you think of a little child in its mother's arms who is always afraid that it was not safe there would it not look as if there was a complete lack of the child's loving confidence in its mother God is able to keep that which you have committed to him so if you don't trust him you really dishonor him the command an army who would look at his soldiers and see them turning pale with fear and trembling as they marched off to the conflict he would say to himself these soldiers of mine are no credit to their leaders and will you who have a captain who is so completely able to protect you show you a complete lack of courage because of fear shall a cowardly spirit be permitted in the service of our most holy God shall the captain of our salvation have to lead a fearful army to fight with the powers of darkness I have sometimes thought when I have heard about the fears of God's people concerning the times in which we live of what is going to become of them surely they did not know that the king is in our midst that the Lord is a wall of fire all around us and his glory is in our midst for if they only knew that he is our protector and defender they could not be so fearful as they are besides you who are of an anxious spirit often grieve as a Christian you who are of an anxious spirit often grieve of the Christian there are others who are like you and they become even more fearful by coming into contact with you your anxiety is catching like a disease every now and then I meet with Christians you'd like to hear sermons that make them miserable I had a letter from one sometime ago who said that as soon as he came here and saw how cheerful the people look he felt certain that he was not among the suffering people of God so we went away and turned into a little chapel where there was only 15 or 16 people and he heard a good sermon about the corruption of the heart and there he felt it home for my part I like such texts as these rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice we have plenty of troubles and trials and if we like to fret over them we can always do that but then we have far more Joy's than troubles and so our song should exceed our side we have a good God a good God who has promised that as our days so shall our strength be why should the children of a king go mourning all their days ah one says but this is a wailing wilderness yes if you wail in it it will wail back in response but if you sing in this wilderness it will sing back to you remember the ancient promise the desert and the parched land will be glad the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the croaker and lastly for this morning don't you think that a dull heavy murmuring spirit is a great hindrance to the unconverted don't you think that a dull and heavy and murmuring spirit is a great hindrance to the unconverted if they find you in this state they will say this person's religion does not appear to do him much good worldly people often say that Christians are the most miserable people in the world I think this is a great mistake on their part and that they don't really know us or if they knew some of us they would find that we have cheerful spirits in spite of a good deal that might depress huh don't any of you Christians called the world to say that Christ is a hard master I would not like to ride a horse that was all skin and bones for people would then say that it was because his master didn't take care of him and give him good food to eat I would not like to have in my house a servant who was always wringing her hands and whose eyes were usually full of tears those who visit would say her mistress is a wretched woman you may be sure of that and if professing Christians are always seen to be in a wretched unhappy state people are sure to say of a circle hard master the ways of Christ are ways of unpleasantness and all his past or misery and wretchedness sinner that is not true but it is true that light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart and we earnestly wish that you would come and prove the truth of it to yourself believing in Jesus you would have a perfect peace and a bliss that nothing can destroy you would have a little heaven below and a great heaven above you would be able to take your troubles to God and lead them there and you would march along with songs of rejoicing until you come to that blessed place where there are pleasures forevermore may God bless you for Christ's sake Amy

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Keywords: needless fears, needless fear, needless fears charles spurgeon, spurgeon needless fears, charles spurgeon needless fears, needless fears spurgeon, charles spurgeon fear, ch spurgeon sermons, spurgeon sermons, c h spurgeon sermons, charles spurgeon sermon, ch spurgeon, spurgeon, charles spurgeon, sermons on fear, evangelical, charles spurgeon sermons, fear, pastor (religious leadership title), sermon, charles spurgeon (author), gospel, protestant, reformed baptists (religion)

Id: fq1lm5SmRx0

Length: 40min 26sec (2426 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 16 2017