Our immoderate love of life and its comforts and conveniences is another cause of sinful fear in times of danger. If we loved our lives less, we would fear and tremble less.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 42
Upon their king's death, it was the Persians' custom (I am not saying it was laudable) to grant everyone liberty for five days to do whatever they wanted. The unbridled lust was so great that it made the people long and pray for the installment of their next king. In this way it endeared government to them. Blessed be God for law and government, for using them to curb people's raging lusts, and thereby procuring rest and comfort for us in the world!Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 22-23
a trembling life destroys the spiritual comforts that flow from God's promises. It also destroys our experience of the promises - the sweetest pleasures we have in this world.
If we fear God, we dare not ignore what He commands. If His fear is exalted in our hearts, it will enable us to obey Him in duties accompanied with deep self-denial.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 20
Look to it, my dear friends, that none of you be found Christless at your appearance before him. Those that continue Christless now, will be left speechless then. God forbid that you that have heard so much of Christ, and you that have professed so much of Christ, should at last fall into a worse condition than those that never heard the name of Christ.
A young ungrounded Christian, when he sees all the fundamental truths, and sees good evidence and reasons of them, perhaps may be yet ignorant of the right order and place of every truth. It is a rare thing to have young professors to understand the necessary truths methodically: and this is a very great defect: for a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consisteth in the respect they have to one another. This therefore will be a very considerable part of your confirmation, and growth in your understandings, to see the body of the Christian doctrine, as it were, at one view, as the several parts of it are united in one perfect frame; and to know what aspect one point has upon another, and which are their due places. There is a great difference betwixt the sight of the several parts of a clock or watch, as they are disjointed and scattered abroad, and the seeing of them conjointed, and in use and motion. To see here a pin and there a wheel, and not know how to set them all together, nor ever see them in their due places, will give but little satisfaction. It is the frame and design of holy doctrine that must be known, and every part should be discerned as it has its particular use to that design, and as it is connected with the other parts.
If we were to understand how dear we are to God, our relation to Him, our value in His eyes, and how He protects us by His faithful promises and gracious presence, we would not tremble at every appearance of danger.
Providence is wiser than you, and you may be confident it has suited all things better to your eternal good than you could do had you been left to your own option.
It is a reproach and dishonor to Christ to fill our heads with distracting cares and fears when we have so wise a Head to consult and work for us.Triumphing Over Sinful Fear, 106
Oh, give the Lord no rest until your hearts are at rest by the assurance of His love for you and the pardon of your sins!Triumphing Over Sinful Fear, 98
fear makes people impatient while waiting for God's time and method of deliverance. It discourages the soul and drives it into the next temptation's snare.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 54
Sinful fear arises from unbelief - an unworthy distrust of God. This occurs when we fail to rely upon the security of God's promise; in order words, when we refuse to trust in God's protection.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 12
Suppose a bird was to come once in a thousand years to some vast mountain of sand and carry away in her bill one sand in a thousand years. O what a vast time would it be ere this immortal bird, after that rate, had recovered the mountain, and yet in time this might be done, for there would be still some diminution. But in eternity there can be none. There be things in time which are not competent to eternity. In time there is a succession: one generation, year, and day passeth and another comes; but eternity is a fixed now. In time there is a diminution and wasting; the more is past, the less is to come. But it is not so in eternity.
Take heed and beware of the detestable sin of drunkenness, which is a beastly sin, a voluntary madness, a sin that unmans thee and makes thee like the beasts that perish; yea, sets thee below the brute beasts, which will not drink to excess.
"Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days" (Rev. 2:10). Here are four remarkable limitations upon Satan and his agents in reference to the people of God: a limitation as to the persons—not all, but some; a limitation of the punishment—a prison, not a grave, not hell; a limitation upon them as to the end—for trial, not ruin; and lastly, as to the duration—not as long as they please, but ten days.
There is also a lawful contempt of death. We freely grant it, that in two cases a believer may contemn it. First, when it is propounded to them in a temptation on purpose to scare them from Christ and duty, then they should slight it as in Revelation 12:11. They loved not their lives to the death. Secondly, when the natural evil of death is set in competition with the enjoyment of God in glory, then a believer should despise it, as Christ is said to do (Heb. 12:2), though His was a shameful death. But upon all other accounts and considerations, it is the height of stupidity and security to despise it.